Operation: Vanguard
by Dr.Bartholomew.J.Tucker
Summary: During a delivery for Eris Morn, the Arcadia takes a direct hit to the Jump Drive, sending her back to the dawn of the 21st Century. Stella brings with her warnings of the future, her prowess as a warrior... and something deadly. Can she and Team Rainbow save the world from an early death? Stella X Dokkaebi(?) Rated M for obvious reasons.
1. Eye's up, Guardian

_**Hello everybody, I know you've been expecting a chapter for "Guardian of Magic" or " Force of Change," but I sort of had this idea niggling in my head and it wouldn't go away. As for the other two stories, I think I have one for TFoC, but it needs some serious editing, as does GoM. However, I may drop GoM for the time being, as it does not seem to be getting quite the reception that I had hoped for. Rest assured, I will be picking it back up, but I need some feedback on it before I do. So far, TFoC has been my best story yet, and that's not something I'm willing to just let go.**_

 _ **Concerning this story, I'm thinking of a Stella X Dokkaebi pairing, or do you have a different idea? I will be adding opperators as they come in the game, and will even do any events that come around for the game in this story. Now, let's see what sort of antics my Guardian can get into, shall we?**_

 _ ****_

 _ **Unknown Location, France**_

 _Guardian? Eyes up, Guardian._

Stella let out a soft groan, the sound muffled heavily by her helmet. She opened her mouth to speak, but was immediately cut off as her Ghost overrode the motor functions in her mouth and jaw.

 _Don't say anything, Guardian. We've been captured._

That brought Stella to full alert mode in less than a second as her vision sharpened, and her mind cleared. She glanced around the room through her helmet, being careful not to move her head and alert anyone who might be watching to her state of awareness, _Ghost, what the hell happened? Where are we?_

 _Somewhere in France, nearly a hundred years before the dawn of humanity's Golden Age._

Stella frowned, her brain having some difficulty processing what Ghost had said, _A hundred years before... Ghost, are you telling me we've travelled through time? How?_

She could feel her Ghost give a sort of mental shrug, _I'm not quite sure myself. From what I could figure out before we were pulled from the wreckage of the Arcadia, we took a direct hit to the Jump Drive's exotic matter converter._

Stella scowled, _I suppose this is what we get for giving Einstein the middle finger? Who found us? Military, I assume? Are we still in the field?_ The Guardian's keen eyes quickly spotted that they were in some sort of tent, or a Quarantine Zone, not surprising since she was technically an alien to them. Her arms and legs were cuffed to a heavy metal table, and cameras were mounted on tripods, watching her from every angle.

 _Correct, the wreckage of the Arcadia is apporximately 17 metres to our east, being prepped for transport out of here, and... we have company._

Stella stiffened as a man and a woman entered the tent, speaking softly to each other. The man seemed normal enough, barring the massive, bucket-like helmet and overall bearlike stature. But the woman, she seemed to be the dangerous one. White and black make-up covered her face in the grim visage of a skull, and she leered at Stella with a strange glint in her eyes. The kind that said, 'I'm about to have a lot of fun breaking you.' _Interrogator?_

 _Looks like it... I'll see if I can't find something to wirelessly access to get some info._

Stella nodded, straining her ears to hear what the two humans were saying.

"Look, Cav. I get that Jack said it was awake, but I doubt that it's in any way capable of speaking right now. And besides, there's no way in hell it can even understand us."

"Oh, please. Pain is a universal language. You don't have to speak in order to give information. And besides, it's going on the disection table anyways, I might as well have a bit of fun before they ruin it."

So, they already knew she was awake? Interesting. She would have to ask this 'Jack' how they figured it out. She hadn't moved a muscle when she woke up... After a moment, Stella cleared her throat and spoke drily, "You know, I have no clue how you lot do things, but where I come from we don't immediately introduce ourselves with a painful interrogation. Nice facepaint, by the way. Really brings out the 'I'm-gonna-fuck-your-shit-up' in your eyes."

Both humans froze, twisting to stare at her. The buckethead man seemed at a loss for words, whilst his partner grinned and pulled out a knife, fingering the tip while she sat down at the table, across from Stella, "So, alienígena, you speak English? What poor fool did your race take that one from?"

Stella rolled her eyes, the movement hidden by her helmet, "Your mother."

'Cav' stiffened while her partner tried his best to stifle his snort of laughter. She glared at the Guardian, tightening her grip on the knife, "Listen here, alienígena. You're a long way from home, your ship is dead, and I'm the last thing you'll ever see unless you decide to cooperate. Now, what will... Are you laughing at me? Alright, it looks like you want this the hard way!"

Stella watched with mild disinterest as the woman stood up, walking around the table before grabbing Stella's helmet and yanking her head back. For a brief moment, Stella thought she was going to go with the standard 'Threaten-Your-Life' tactic that so many interrogators adopted, but was pleasantly surprised when she opened a small cut at the softer fabric of Stella's neckpiece. The soft hiss of escaping air filled the room as the pressurized suit began to slowly equalize with the surrounding atmosphere. The buckethead man stepped forward, pulling out a roll of duct tape, "Cav, what the hell are you thinking! It'll suffocate!"

Cav held the man back, a twisted grin on her face, "She won't suffocate for at least three minutes. Plenty of time for her to make a decision."

Stella sighed, shaking her head, "You know, this was one of my favorite armour sets. Why'd you have to go and ruin it?" She could have laughed at the confused look on 'Cav's' face, but was growing tired of playing games. With a moment of concentration, she vaporized the cuffs on her arms and legs in a flash of void energy. Bot humans backed up abruptly and reached for their respective weapons as Stella stretched in her seat. A silenced pistol for the woman, and a rather worn looking handgun for buckethead. She scowled, "Oh, stand down, you lot. I'm not part of some invasion force. Nor am I here to abduct anyone. My jump drive was hit in a combat situation, and I was sent back in time due to the resultant chain reaction. Judging by your rather primitive looking tech, I'd say… early to mid twenty first century?"

Stella was trying not to laugh anymore as Cav's head looked like it was about to explode. Her jaw worked silently for several seconds, before she turned around sharply, and marched out of the tent. Buckethead looked after her for a moment, before shrugging and dropping down heavily in the chair across from Stella, "Sorry about my comrade. Caveira tends to get a little… enthusiastic about her work. So, tell me, чужак, what brings you to our little corner of the universe?"

Stella shrugged, crossing her arms. She was liking this guy already, "Like I said, I didn't actually come from some distant planet or anything. I mean, I _do_ live on the Reef, which is somewhere in the Kuiper Belt, but I frequent Earth quite often. I come from a little over a thousand years in the future. I was engaged in combat over the European continent, and was attempting to retreat before my jump drive took a direct hit. Throw in my incredible luck, and instead of dying in a fiery flash of light, it blew a hole in space-time, and sent me here. I'm Stella, by the way, Warlock Class Guardian in the Vanguard of Humanity, part of humanity's last line of defense from extinction. I'm not here to hurt anyone unless they hurt me first, and even then I'll try not to kill them."

The man paused for a moment, before letting out a hearty chuckle, "Well, then Stella, welcome to the twenty first century, where cash is king, conspiracy is the norm, and vodka is the only thing that keeps Russians like myself sane. By the way, I know you don't breath some foreign atmosphere, so why don't you take that helmet off?"

Stella thought about it for a moment, before shrugging and letting the helmet vanish with a flurry of bright light. She waited a moment to let her eyes adjust, before nodding at the man, "Sorry, I'm not actually used to taking my helmet off outside the Last City. What's your name, big guy?"

Buckethead scrutinized her Awoken features, steel grey eyes thoroughly inspecting his first example of an alien species. After a moment, he shrugged, "My name is Alexsandr Senaviev, though I am called Tachanka by the other operators on account of my weapon of choice during situations."

Stella raised an eyebrow in surprise. She honestly hadn't expected the human to be so open with such information, "You seem rather... talkative, Tachanka. Much different from your skull faced companion."

He waved off her concerns, "Ah, don't worry about Comrade Caveira. Like I said, she gets rather... excited about her job. I was here to make sure she didn't go overboard. Though, from the wreckage we're about to cart off, I'd say that would be very difficult. You seem to be rather healthy for someone who just crashed from orbit. As for your time travel story..." The big Russian paused, his eyes somehow conveying a sharp frown. "I honestly don't know what to think of it, but there's no other explanaition for what you've said, so I'll just go with it for now. Don't expect the other Operator's to go along as easily though."

Stella nodded, twitching slightly as her Ghost appeared in her head, _Guardian, you won't beleive this, but I don't think we have anything to fear from these people. These 'Operators' are part of a clandestine, international organization codenamed: Rainbow. They assist with hostage situations, bomb defusals, and biological terror threats. The government of France has asked for their aid in transporting you and the Arcadia to another location, but it sounds like Rainbow's leader, a person by the name of Six, has other plans. I can't quite break their encryption systems though, so it's hard to tell._

Stella nodded, "Tachanka, I think you should meet my little friend. Just don't shoot, okay?" She gestured with her hand, summoning her Ghost. "This is Ghost, an artificial intelligence created by a massive mechanical entity known as the Traveller. He's been poking through the wirelessly accessible information availble on hand, so we know a bit about Rainbow. Why would Rainbow assist with the recovery of alien technology?"

Tachanka paused for a longer moment, trying to process what had just happened. After a few seconds, he seemed to mentally shrug and just roll with it, "To be honest, I'm not sure myself. Six, our superiour, simply tasked four of us with defending the wreckage and anything found within. You've actually been here for about five days, and we just got here yesterday. I _am_ rather curious why she went with four of us instead of the standard five. You've already met Caveira and myself, then we have Jack, aka Pulse. He's the one who knew you were about to wake up, probably because your heartrate sped up. Then there's Doc. Well, he does have a name, but we always call him Doc. He's the field medic."

Stella nodded, frowning slightly. That explained how they knew she was awake... sort of. But Tachanka's explanation only raised more questions, "Well, I suppose you've given me information. It's only right that I return the favor. I am a Guardian, a soldier resurrected to fight anything that could be a threat to humanity. Specically, the Darkness and its followers. I reside in the Reef, deep in the Kuiper Belt, and far away from the main body of the Vanguard. I serve under my Queen, Mara Sov, and assist the Vanguard when needed. Barring that, I lead a team of Fallen, an alien race, under the banner of the House of Wolves, and Queen's Wrath."

She tapped her right shoulder plate, where a worn, but still visible insignia of stylized wolf could be made out, "I have served under this banner for the last seven years, and have been a guardian for nearly ten years. I also have... powers, but they are too destructive and energy consuming to use in a simple demonstration."

Tachanka nodded pensively, "You're a soldier. I can respect that... Maybe Six saw the report of you being recovered and decided to look into it herself. I hope you can find your place in our broken world, Guardian Stella. It's not going to be much compared to your glorious future, but-"

Stella cut him off, holding her hand up, "PLease... My time is dying. There are less than a million humans alive, and we are beset on all sides by threats that would make a normal person scream for their mummy. The 21st century, while somewhat polluted, is infinitely better than my time."

Tachanka's eyes widened, and he began to notice the haggard, dark shadows in Stella's eyes. She looked young, yes, but he had seen those eyes... He had them himself. He knew what she had seen. Friends killed, tortured even. Cities ransacked... Civilian families torn apart. Just the way she held herself. Relaxed, yet it was false. She was expecting to be attacked at any moment. "Comrade Stella... I sincerely hope these French fools know how to treat a war veteran. Otherwise, I will personally be back to teach them a lesson."

Stella let out a sharp laugh, shaking her head, "Gods above, I like you already, Tachanka. You are the epitome of a Titan Class Guardian. Built like a brick shithouse, optimistic to a fault, and yet willing to take a bullet for someone without question."

Tachanka puffed his chest out, his eyes twinkling merrily, "That's me. And call me Alex."

Stella nodded, opening her mouth to respond. Before she could though, the loud chatter of automatic weapons broke the silence of the French night. Stella and Tachanka leapt to their feet, with the latter drawing his weapon again. He glanced down at Stella as a rather unusual, futuristic rifle appeared in her hands with a flash of light. He wrote it off as future technology, before looking at the tent entrance and gesturing for her to be quiet. Stella nodded, creeping over to the entrance and standing off to the side with her weapon pointing at chest height to someone walking in. Her helmet reappeared in a flash of light, and her Ghost vanished. Tachanka glanced at the table again, before letting out a silent chuckle and sitting down in the chair, crossing his arms. He sent a wink at Stella, who nodded and readied herself.

It took only a few seconds, before a bald man with a shotgun rushed in, looking worried, "Tachanka? Thank god, I thought the bastards had already gotten here. Where's the alien?"

Stella grinned, stepping up to the man and placing the weapon to the back of his head, "Pulse, I presume?"

Tachanka roared with laughter as his fellow operator spun around, falling to the floor with his weapon drawn, "Jack, I thought you of all people would have checked your corners before rushing in!"

The shotgun wielding operator scowled, pulling himself to his feet, "And I thought you and Cav of all people wouldn't let the alien go!"

"Not an alien, but we'll get to that later." Stella held out her hand to the downed human, offering her assistance. When he refused, she shrugged and looked towards the door. "Right, so how many pricks are we dealing with?"

"About thirty."

Stella jumped, letting out a string of curses in Russian that made even Tachanka pause. Caveira had managed to sneak into the tent with them without alerting either operator or the guardian. She glared sourly at the woman, who was grinning smugly at her, "I could have shot you. You know that, right?"

"Yes, alienígena, you could have. But you didn't." Caveira crossed her arms, gesturing to the front entrance of the tent, "I managed to get a few questions answered, thanks to a wonderful volunteer. It seems that someone leaked the discovery of our alienígena to the White Mask organization, and they've decided to try and steal some of its tech."

Stella scowled, "I'm a female, by all accounts, thank you very much. And my name is Stella. Where's your medic?"

Cav's grin turned nasty, "Why? Does the alienígena have a little boo-boo from when I cut her armour?"

Stella's eye twitched behind her helmet's visor, before she raised her weapon without warning and fired. Two purple bolts of energy lanced across the tent and punched through the wall behind Cav, resulting in a terrified scream of pain and a brilliant flash of purple light as an enemy was completely disintegrated, "No. There are three of you here, and according to Alex, four of you were sent here. Now, where is your medic?"

Pulse raised an eyebrow, "Doc is probably still over at the medbay. He knows how to take care of himself th-"

"Team Rainbow, what an unpleasant surprise."

Everyone froze as a distorted voice boomed out in the cool French air. Pulse looked at Cav with an alarmed expression, but the face paint operative looked even more confused than him.

"Team Rainbow, we only want the alien technology discovered here today. No one else has to get hurt. We have your comrades in the medical bay, and will begin killing them within the next four minutes if you do not surrender and comply with our demands. This will be the last you hear from us."

Stella narrowed her eyes, turning to Caveira, "You were saying?"

Tachanka growled, standing up, "Alright, Pulse, what's our move?"

The bald human frowned, "Shit, I wasn't expecting to have a hostage situation today! Six should have sent Sledge and his team for this… Woah, alien girl, where the hell do you think you're going?"

Stella glanced back at the humans, "Me? I'm going to get your man out of the fire. It seems that humans are just as helpless in this era as they are in mine. Now, you can either sit her and twiddle your thumbs, or you can help me. And as much as I would love to show up the wannabe grimm reaper over there, your help would be gladly appreciated." Without bothering to see what their reaction would be, Stella strode out of the quarintine/interrogation tent, and out into a warzone. She spotted several individuals in white masks milling about, keeping a vague watch on the tent she had just left. Several of the humans immediately noticed her and began pointing her out, the others readying their weapons.

 _Guardian, I have prepared a small playlist of music. Do you have any preferences?_

"Hmmm... Something... Classical."

The humans paused as the field camp's PA system suddenly squealed, Ghost hijacking it for his own purposes. Stella grinned as 'Back in Black' began blaring from the speakers, an idea forming in her mind, "Belay that, Ghost. Give me, the Russian National Anthem."

 _The Russian... Ooooohhh... Got it._

The rock music suddenly cut off as the brass section of a Russian band flared to life. Stella resisted the urge to laugh at the utter bewilderment in the terrorists' body language as the music started playing. Hey, it was just as popular in the future as it was in the past.

"Comrade Stella, if you wanted to see the might of the Motherland, you only need ask." Stella glanced back at the tent, where Tachanka and Pulse were leaving, the former exuding a very smug air of satisfaction.

"Oh, now where's the fun in that, Tachanka? I figured I should get permission to kill before I start some international incident." She noticed that Caveira was nowhere to be seen, but that was good. It was part of the plan. She noticed Pulse looked rather uncomfortable, so she cleared her throat, "Pulse, sorry for the cutaway from AC/DC, but I wanted Chanka out here. It's nice to have a little conversation when killing, isn't it?"

All three of them winced at the extremely forced nature of what Stella had said, but Pulse got the idea. He shrugged, "I think our medic would disagree, but he's not here right now, so I suppose so."

 _The Operator Caveira is currently disabling several enemies. ETA to completion, two minutes._

Not good enough. They needed more time. She glanced at one of the White Mask terrorists, "Hey, don't just sit there like a bump on a log. What do you lot think? Do you like killing alone, or with your buddies?"

The human she looked at glanced around helplessly at his allies, before growling, "What the hell do you think you're doing? We're trying to _kill_ you! Who the hell holds a casual conversation with their killers, anyway?"

Stella shrugged, gesturing around, "Well, you obviously outnumber us, and you're probably going to kill us anyways, so might as well go out peacefully. By the way, what exactly is this White Mask organization? I mean, I heard a bit about it from my... _friends_ here, but they didn't exactly explain what your end goals are. You do have one, right? Or are you killing just to kill?"

The man snorted, "You're fucking insane, woman. But hell, you're right. You're dead anyway, so I might as well humor you. We're here to usher in a new age of humanity. The weak shall die, the strong will survive, and those left after ourselves, and our employers are finished, shall rebuild a new world, free from pain and hunger."

Stella whistled after a moment of silence, "Geeze, that's not cliche at all. Who's your boss? I assume someone rich, despite the paper masks you're wearing. I mean, I get the need for anonymity, but surely you could have splurged or something a little more durable."

Tachanka nodded, crossing his arms, "I agree with my Comrade. Your paper masks only look slightly less intimidting than a kindergartner's school project! You see my helmet? Now this is intimidation and protection!"

The terrorist growled, "Fuck you! Get on your fucking knees, now!"

Stella grinned, "Oh, and and are you going to make us? You and what army?"

The man glanced behind him, only to realize that his entire team had been taken down by the stealthy Caveira. His eyes widened, and he reached for a radio. Before he could do anything, or alert his allies, Stella had raised her rifle and sank two bolts in his chest. Caveira stepped out of the shadows, blood splattered on her face and a look of utter bewilderment in her eyes, "That had to be the strangest distraction I have ever seen in my life. How did you do it?"

Stella shrugged, "When your closest friend is a Queen who hates parties, you tend to learn how to distract large crowds. Thanks for the assist, boys. Now, let's go get your friend."

She shouldered her rifle, moving quietly through the dead silent camp, emphasis on 'dead.' Caveira watched her suspiciously, "Hang on, why would she be helping us? She obviously has some sort of motive."

Tachanka shook his head, putting massive hand on Cav's shoulder, "She's a soldier, like us. You didn't hear what I heard. She isn't an alien in the technical sense of being directly off planet. She's a soldier who fights to keep humanity alive."

The woman snorted, "Right. Is that why she just helped to butcher two dozen White Mask recruits?"

Pulse cleard his throat, "She was providing a distraction. You did all the work, barring the first kill. And judging from that weapon, I doubt she would need any help killing whatever stands in her way."

The two men took off at a brisk jog to catch up with Stella, with Cav bringing up the rear, grumbling to herself. Pulse hissed quietly for Stella to slow down as they approached the hub of the camp, which had been built around Stella's downed ship. The girl was already waiting for them, watching the ship with a silent, almost mournful air from the edge of the small crater produced by the Arcadia's impact. Pulse gestured for Tachanka to look at the front of the ship. A woman in a white lab coat was being held at gunpoint, appearing terrified as two gunmen demanded that she open the ship.

"That's Dr. Lisa Heartfield, the lead scientist brought in to investigate your ship," Pulse nodded to the scene, a frown on his face. "Is there anything inside your ship they might want?"

Stella shook her head, "I'm surprised it's still intact. I mean, maybe the engines, but they run off of Glimmer, something humanity won't discover for a few hundred years. Think contained elecromagnetic energy."

Caveira scowled, "Are you sure there aren't any biological agents in there? That's usually what they go for."

She rolled her eyes, "I'm a soldier, not some scholar transporting tissue... SHIT!"

All three operatives jumped at her outburst, grabbing her before she could throw herself into a potential firefight. Tachanka forced her to the ground, trying to keep her quiet, "What is wrong with you, Guardian? What is on that ship!?"

Stella opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted as a sharp crack echoed through the air, followed by heavy coughing and cursing. They all looked down at where the ship's cockpit had opened up, releasing a yellowish haze. The three humans standing next to it had collapsed, and were clawing at their faces. Their skin appeared to be hardening and rotting at the same time, and it looked like any internal organs were withering away, leaving a concave hollow. Bones cracked and elongated, and teeth sharpened and lengthened. Cries of pain and agony quickly turned into inhuman, ethereal shrieks and screams. There was a bright blue flash, and all three operatives were thrown off of Stella. She jumped to her feet, electricity crackling off her armour. She looked down at the humans, "Get your medic... And run."

Stella didn't bother waiting for a response before throwing herself down into the crater. All three of the newly made thralls immediately noticed her as a brilliant beacon of Light. She leveled her rifle at the nearest one, only to have it knocked from her grasp. The thrall tackled her to the ground, biting and clawing at her Philomanth Visor to try and get at her face. But Stella was having none of it. With a grunt of effort, she channeled Arc power through her fist and slammed it through the Thrall's head, disintegrating it with a bright blue flash. She jumped to her feet, glaring at the other two Thralls warily. Her weapon was to the right of her, and while she could potentially summon another weapon, she didn't want to risk not having access to her Vault. Graviton Lance was a weapon she kept on her at all times, but it was too far away for her to make a run for it now, and she needed to wait a moment to recharge her energy for the melee strike. _Any suggestions, Ghost?_

 _Yes. Duck._

"GUARDIAN, GET DOWN!"

Stella whipped around to see Tachanka standing on the rim of the crater, alongside Caveira and Pulse. The bear of a man was set up behind a mounted LMG, while his comrades stood to his left and right with automatic weapons. She yelped, hitting the dirt as the weapons roared to life. The Thralls stood no chance against the onslaught, each bullet removing a fist sized chunk or more from the diseased creatures. Stella could do nothing but cover her head as the Thralls were torn to shreds. The gunfire quickly died down, and Stella hesitantly poked her head up. The thralls were nothing more than dust on the wind now, having disintegrated when the necrotic magika cursing them was unable to sustain itself from the damage. She hesitantly stood up, staring shakily at the spot. She could have died... If she had died, who knew how long it would take her ghost to revive her in this time. The thralls could have gone after the humans, and she would have failed in her duty as a Guardian.

"You're lucky Tachanka likes you." Stella jumped as Caveira appeared at her side. The interrogator was frowning at the now open ship, unease in her eyes. After a moment, she shook her head, "We'll speak about this later. Right now, we need to get Doc out of here. Pulse has already called for an evac, but we need to secure the area before they arrive."

Stella nodded slowly, turning away from the wreck and climbing up to meet Tachanka and Pulse. The Russian was collapsing his mounted weapon, slinging it over his back with little to no apparent effort. She sighed, "Thank you, Tachanka. You and your team may have just saved the human race from an early extinction."

He shrugged his shoulders gesturing to a brightly lit tent a few hundred metres away, "It was nothing. Just doing our job. Besides, we need all the hands we can get if we're going to secure the area."

Stella nodded, turning to look at the tent with a much calmer mind. They needed a plan... And a good one at that."

 ** _Next chapter: They save doc, kick some ass, but loose something important._**

 ** _Remember to leave some reviews! I practically live off those! And if you really want to support me, you can head on over to my Patron page and donate! Look up 'Writing Soldier.' Or, just add_** **/Writing_Soldier _to the main URL. Anything you can do would be greatly appreciated!_**


	2. Light has Fallen

_**Alright, time to answer a few questions.**_

 _ **Q: Will I update my older stories?**_

 _ **A: Yes. I plan to rotate through the stories as time goes on. However, it will be a slow process, as I am not only working, but also writing my own book.**_

 _ **Q: Why don't I use spellcheck.**_

 _ **A: Sometimes, I don't have the time. However, if you are seeing words like "Colour, Armour, Kilometre, etc." and considering those as misspelled, they aren't. Those are just the British spellings. I'm weird like that.**_

 _ **Q: (For TFoC); Lightsabers can't block bullets. Why do you keep deflecting the bullets on Remnant?**_

 _ **A: Those aren't bullets in the sense of a piece of lead being propelled by a chemical explosion. The projectile weapons in RWBY usually use dust instead of metal, which also explains the rather poor penetration power of most ranged weapons in the show. Dust is quite literally crystallized energy. Basic dust is essentially a tougher blaster bolt. Now, some elemental Dusts will have rather odd effects when struck by a saber, which will be revealed later on.**_

 _ **Phew… I think that covered most of it. Enjoy the chapter.  
**_

Gustave Ketab was a man of action, preferring to take his unique set of skills as a medic to the frontlines, rather than wait for his patients to come to him. He disliked conflict, but would gladly take part if it would resolve it quicker. However, that made people like the White Mask organization his worst nightmare. People who indiscriminately killed, and cared nothing for their own men. And they certainly didn't care for the health of their hostages. They were in a medical tent, for crying out loud, with two injured French scientists and a medic, and they wouldn't let him help at least stabilize them. He glared at the lead man, a suicide bomber if the bulky hazmat suit with wires and C4 was anything to go by, "I don't understand why you won't at least let me help them! They'll die if they don't get medical treatment!"

The bomber turned and sneered, "Shut up, you pathetic fool. All of you are going to die anyways, so why would I bother letting you do anything? Just sit there and wait you're turn. Once we dispose of your allies, you lot are next!"

The medic's blood ran cold as he stared at them man. Of course, he should have known that these terrorists would have no honor. Why would they? The White Mask organization was hell bent on wiping out half of humanity after all. He sat down numbly, unable to see a way out of this situation. He had never been a hostage before, and he was beginning to realize why some of them seemed so drained by the time they were rescued. It was hard to keep spirits up when there was no hope. The team that had been sent in from Rainbow were defenders, not attackers. And without Doc, it was three against a small army of-

"Rodriguez? Radio Check. I haven't heard from anyone in several minutes."

Doc narrowed his eyes, listening carefully.

"Derek, has anyone checked in with you?"

"Nothing, boss. It's been quiet for about ten minutes now. I haven't even heard anything from the guys we sent with that American chick to the spaceship."

"Shit... You don't think?"

The bomber shook his head, "No fucking way. We had a small army of guys out there. It was three operators, and one of them barely moves... We need to get out there. Erikson, James, grab two others and come with me. We're going to take these fuckers out now."

Doc's ears perked up as he heard a small clicking sound, like a soft heartbeat. He glanced at one of the walls of the tent, spotting Pulse's boots on the ground in the thin crack separating the tent from dirt. His team! He waited for just a moment while half of the ten terrorists quickly vacated the tent from the front, before speaking up, "I'm sure you don't need five terrorists to watch a couple of injured scientists and a doctor. What are we going to do? Run?"

"Shut up!"

Stars exploded in Gustave's vision as the nearest terrorist cracked the grip of his own revolver in his face. But that was what he had been waiting for. He spun with the blow, letting the momentum carry him into a sloppy spin that ended with him throwing a brutal elbow into the terrorist's face. While he was disoriented, Doc grabbed the revolver and wrestled it from his grip, shooting him in the chest and shouting, "Descendre!" Before the other terrorists could react, Doc had rolled behind a table, knocking it over for a makeshift cover. Pulse seemed to take that as his signal, unloading his weapon through the wall and into the nearest heartbeat. A massive gash opened up in the side of the tent, allowing in Tachanka and Caveira, who took down two more terrorists. The last one was reaching for his radio to alert the leader, but before he could make it even halfway there, two bolts of purple energy slammed into his chest. He screamed in pain as the strange energy ate away at him, seeming to erase him from existance. A fourth person walked in, wearing a strange suit of armour that covered them from head to toe.

Doc stood up, pointing his weapon at the armoured individual, "Caveira, what is the alien doing here?"

The interrogator let out an annoyed grunt, walking over to an injured terrorist, "Go talk to Alex. I need to blow off some steam."

The medic looked at Tachanka in confusion. The bear of a man was busy setting up his heavy LMG, humming the Russian anthem softly to himself. Doc remembered hearing the song playing for a brief moment, but had no clue what the hell was going on at the time. "Alex, what's going on?"

The Russian glanced up at Gustave, shrugging and gesturing at the armoured alien, "Apparently, she's not an enemy. She's some sort of super soldier from the future who was transporting a sample of some really nasty stuff when she was attacked. Her warp drive was hit, and she got sent back here. She's been helping us out so far."

The alien walked up to the medic, extending her hand and speaking in a soft voice that held a very slight English accent, "Sorry for getting all of you dragged out here. I'm Stella. Warlock Class Guardian. I don't want to cause any trouble, and for now I'm here to help."

Doc raised an eyebrow at the very human gesture, taking note of her use of English and her accent. After a moment, he nodded and reluctantly shook her hand, "I am Dr. Gustave Ketab, medic for Team Rainbow. You seem to have a rather good grasp of our language, madame. Where did you learn it?"

Stella shook her head, a slight undertone of annoyance in her voice as she responded, "I keep telling you people that I'm not an alien. Not like you think, anyways. My race is actually an offshoot of the Human Race. Most of us just happen to live off planet. Now, French is a dead language in my time, but that's not saying much when the population of Earth is less than a million…"

That seemed to bring the Doc back down to Earth, so to speak. He shot a sharp glare at the Guardian, "What do you mean less than a million? What happened?"

Stella shook her head stiffly, her annoyance growing exponentially, "No. I'm not explaining it again. Alex and your other friends already know the gist of it. Ask them. Pulse, or whatever your code name is, what's our ETA on evac?"

The bald man grunted out a noncommittal answer, clearly not expecting the question. Stella rolled her eyes under her helmet, summoning her Ghost in a flash of light, "Ghost, monitor incoming and outgoing communications within a fifteen click radius."

"Of course, Guardian." The Ghost drifted over to a field computer, scanning it silently.

Doc, who was confused and a bit disgruntled by the abrupt and somewhat rude subject change coming from someone who appeared to be half of his age, grabbed Stella by the shoulder and spun her around, "Actually, mademoiselle, I think you're going to explain yourself n-HURK!?"

The other three operators spun to see Doc fall to the ground, clutching at his groin while Stella stood over him. Her helmet vanished, revealing cold, green eyes, "Never touch me without my permission, _human."_

Caveira moved to take the time traveler out, only to be stopped by both Pulse and Tachanka at the same time. Pulse shook his head, "Cav, you would do the same thing if some stranger grabbed you like that."

The Brazilian woman growled something out in Portuguese that probably would have gotten her mouth washed out with soap as a child, but she left the Guardian alone with a final glare. Stella responded with a simple, but effective gesture by raising a single finger to display her feelings towards her anger.

"Guardian, something is… wrong."

Stella raised an eyebrow, her animosity towards Doc forgotten as she hurried over to her Ghost, "What is it? More hostiles? French authorities? Did you hear something?"

"That's just it… There's nothing. We're being jammed, and I can't break through without access to better technology. But that also confuses me… Who knows how to jam something as advanced as myself?"

Stella frowned, thinking carefully. She opened her mouth to respond, but was silenced as Tachanka shushed her, raising a finger to signal that he heard something. The five individuals strained their ears, listening carefully. A strange, buzzing sound could be heard. Stella, who wasn't familiar with twenty first century technology, shook her head, tempted to brush it off. But with the others acting nervous, she knew that something was up. Pulse in particular looked as if he knew exactly what the sound was.

"Stealth choppers… Running silent? Since when does Six use stealth tech for an extract," Pulse frowned, heading towards the tent exit to greet what he thought was an extract. Tachanka and Cav tried to grab him, but he was too far away.

"Guardian! I'm picking up enemy communications! Five airborne targets overhead!"

Stella's eyes widened, and she flooded her body with Void energy, blinking forward and grabbing Pulse. Just as she threw him to the ground, the chatter of automatic gunfire rang out along with the roar of a rotary cannon, tearing through the entrance of the tent. Stella screamed in pain as the bullets at through her shield nearly instantly, before riddling her with hot lead. She was dead before she hit the ground. The humans, who had thrown themselves to the ground when Stella's ghost gave the warning, stared at the bleeding broken body in awe and confusion. Pulse had flattened himself to the ground, shocked by the speed at which the Guardian had just moved… and the fact that she had just sacrificed herself to save him. Tachanka growled something out in Russian, grabbing his LMG and detaching it from his mount with a grunt of effort. He nodded at Cav, who slipped through the rear 'entrance' that had been created when they rescued Doc. The BOPE operator had a grim, unusually dark expression on her face as she drew her silenced pistol. Tachanka moved to Pulse's side, pulling him to his feet and gesturing for him to move to the rear entrance. Then he and Doc moved out in the same manner. He did make a mental note of the fact that the Guardian's "Ghost" was nowhere to be seen, but it was pushed to the back of his mind. Survival was the name of the game now.

The four of them beat a hasty retreat to the nearby treeline, hiding within the shadows and preparing to defend themselves if needed. They could see several helicopters hovering over the Guardian's downed ship, with more men in white hazmat suits working hurriedly on the ground. Doc cursed quietly, "They're taking the ship. What should we do?"

Tachanka shook his head, "Nothing. We're outgunned, and outmatched. None of us have enough bullets to take down even one of those choppers, and it looks like they have at least five. Comrade Stella sacrificed herself to make sure we survived to inform Six of what the White Mask is doing. We cannot let her death be in v-"

"How do you know why she sacrificed herself? She could have been pushing Jack out of the tent to let them know we were here!"

All eyes went to Caveira, who was looking more than a little pissed off. Doc shook his head, "She would have been exposed herself, Taina. I understand why you wouldn't trust her, but she just saved Jack's life. Why must you insist that she had ulterior motives?"

Caveira twitched at the use of her real name, but retorted smoothly, "How does Alex know why she would sacrifice herself?"

Jack gestured towards the Alien ship being prepared for an airlift, "She was pretty much slated for the dissection table, even if she had made it out of here alive. It wasn't like anyone would have listened to her."

Tachanka nodded, "You heard what she said. Less than a million humans live in her time, and they're still fighting an interstellar war of some sort. It looks like the White Masks are going to trigger it early. But now we can prepare for it. I for one th-"

"Excuse me… Could you make some room?"

All eyes and weapons shot to the voice, relaxing only a bit when they saw the Ghost hovering nearby, twitching slightly. Doc frowned, "I'm sorry for your loss er… Monsieur?"

The device bobbed in the air, humming in agreement, "WHile I feel obligated to thank you for your sympathies, doctor, it seems that they are unwarranted. One moment, please."

The humans watched in confusion as the Ghost seemed to diffuse into a small sphere of soft light. Small points of metal remained of it's shell, spinning around a central eye core. There was a moment of near silence, before a bright burst of light was brought forth, and the guardian was created out of thin air. She immediately collapsed, gasping for air. Gustave resisted the urge to go to her side for assistance as she struggled to her feet.

"G-Ghost, what happened? That didn't feel like a normal ressurrection."

The ghost bobbed in the air for a moment, a small spark flickering off of it, "I'm sorry, Guardian. It has been an honor."

Stella's eyes widened as the tiny device suddenly fell to the ground, twitching and sparking. She immediately fell to one knee, groaning in pain. A strange, yet oddly visceral aura of light flickered around her, streaming away as if she were being stripped of something special. She struggled to reach her companion, picking him up gently, "Ghost, what's happening?"

"I'm… sorry- *GHXRT* Guardian. I had to use the last of my own Light to bring you back. But *GGHXXXRRT* last time… Goodbye… And remember… Eye's up, Guardian."

The Ghost's voice cut off, his eye fading into darkness with a sense of finality. Stella hesitantly reached up, taking her helmet off manually. She noticed numbly that her armour had changed to the Philomath Robes Mara had given her as a gift, and Queen of Spades was now strapped to her hip. The pain of having her light stripped was still fresh, but it was nothing compared to having her friend and companion of the last ten years dying in her hands. Her vision blurred, and she quickly realized that she was crying. She never cried. Not a tear had fallen from her face during her time as a Guardian. Yes, she had felt grief, pain, and terror… But nothing like she did now. This was worse than when she had first woken up as a Guardian… "Ghost… Come on, Ghost, this isn't funny. You need to wake up now."

The four human operators looked on in confusion as Stella wept over her strange device being broken. Sure, it had a rather advanced sounding program, but it was just a computer, right? Caveira suddenly grinned evilly, realizing that the girl was vulnerable now. She silently drew her silenced pistol, approaching her from behind. Something must have alerted the now former Guardian though, because she spun around instantly, and planted a solid right hook in the woman's face. Cav went down hard, clutching at her broken nose. Pulse and Doc tensed, ready to defend Cav if Stella wanted to keep going, though Tachanka seemed perfectly at ease, as usual.

Stella glared down at the woman, her ethereal green eyes a mixture of grief and outrage, "If you ever attempt that again, you will die. I don't care if I go with you."

She carefully slipped the now dead Ghost in one of the ammo pouches on her waist, before jamming her helmet back down on her head. She turned to where her ship was, trembling with rage. The choppers were hoisting it up in the air already, quickly vacating the area. Before they could go though, Stella began marching forward, drawing her massive hand cannon and taking aim. Several seconds ticked by, but instead of firing she slowly lowered the weapon.

 _Pulse, do you read me? What's going on? Is everything okay?"_

All eyes went to Pulse, who was hurriedly pulling out a radio, "This is Pulse to Valkyrie, we require full extract, plus one. The White Masks have made off with the ship and some sort of biological agent from hell. The al… Our guest is on our side, HQ. She's not going with the French."

There was a small pause, before the response came through, _Reading you loud and clear, Pulse. Six will be ready to debrief you all when you get back. Standby for Evac. ETA, fifteen minutes. Any casualties?_

Pulse handed the radio off to Doc, who quickly got to work. Stella drowned out his voice though, her mind wondering. Tachanka lumbered up to her side, glancing down at her, "I'm sorry for your loss, Guardian… But it doesn't sound like you're going to get the chance to rest for a while."

Stella nodded silently, her eyes burning a hole through her visor as she stared into the distance. The White Masks were going to pay for this, even if she had to kill every last one of them. She was no longer a Guardian. She was the Queen's Wrath. And it was time to do her job.

 _ **Yeah, I know this chapter is much shorter than my usual ones, but it was sort of a bridge between the epilogue and the main story. I couldn't let Stella be her usual overpowered self as a Guardian in the R6 universe. That just wouldn't be fair. Stay tuned for the next installment.**_


	3. SIX

_**And here's another chapter to my newest story. When we last left off, Stella had assisted with the rescue of Doc, saved pulses life at the cost of her own... Only for her Ghost to sacrifice himself to bring her back. Now powerless in terms of her Voidwalker status, Stella is at the mercy of Six and the organization. I do not own R6, all rights go to Ubisoft... fix your game please. I do not own the Destiny Franchise, though I do own the intellectual rights to Stella as a character, as she is my own creation.**_

Stella stared numbly at the two way mirror across from her, her hollow, shell shocked expression hidden by her helmet's blacked out visor. Her mind struggled to process the events following the death of her Ghost. She knew that a second team of Rainbow Operatives had arrived shortly after the White Mask terrorists made off with her ship, but she couldn't remember who they were. Then they flew... somewhere. Without her Ghost, she had no clue where they were. She assumed it was still in France, though there was a strange rocking motion, and a dull hum that reverbrated around the small metal room she was being held in.

Oh, yeah. And now she was back in handcuffs, being contained within another interrogation room. Several people had already come in and asked her questions, though she was surprised to see that Caveira wasn't one of them. She didn't answer them though. In fact, the only reason she knew they were there was because of the heart pounding terror she felt when the door opened. No Light meant no power to her suit, which meant her motion trackers were offline. A sharp screech of metal brought her heartrate up again, and two people walked into the room. They closed the heavy metal door behind them, before sitting down at the table across from her. She almost didn't recognize Tachanka without his helmet, but his eyes gave him away. He looked at her quietly, concern and sympathy in his eyes.

His companion, a dark skinned woman that somehow reminded Stella of Zavala, placed a thin file on the table, steepling her fingers, "Hello, Guardian. I am Six, deputy director of the Rainbow counter-terrorism unit. I'm here to make a deal with you."

Silence rang out in the interrogation room, with both humans looking at her expectantly. After a moment, Stella opened her mouth, speaking with a harsh, ragged voice, no louder than a whisper. "I'm not a Guardian."

Six raised an eyebrow,"Excuse me? I believe that is the title you gave Mr. Senaveiv. Are you saying you lied?"

Stella slowly shook her head, "I'm not a Guardian... Not anymore. When my Ghost died, I lost my connection to the Light... I am now a normal Awoken. I can die just like you..."

Six nodded, carefully processing the information, "Yes, your 'Ghost.' All four of my operators say they witnessed you being brought back to life. Was that a one time thing?"

"No... And yes. My Ghost was the reason I could be brought back. With a steady connection to the Traveler's Light, he could do it at nearly any time he wanted. But he... he used the last of his own Light, the thing that enabled him and myself to fight for humanity, to bring me back one last time after I saved your man."

Six cleared her throat, hearing instability in Stella's voice and deciding to change the topic, "I'm sorry for your loss Gu... miss. However, I have a proposition for you, if you-"

"Let me guess: I work for your unit, and you grant me some sort of politcal asylum?" Stella looked up sharply at the woman, a small spark of fire entering her tone.

Six nodded, her lips twitching in the barest hint of a smirk, "Correct. You will be granted asylum, and your information will be kept classified. The only people who will know of your existance will be myself, the operatives sent to France, and another operator, Valkyrie. You will be allowed to wear your armour at all times, and only a direct order from myself can change that."

Stella remained silent, before slowly looking up at the one way mirror, "Is the observation room empty?"

Six nodded, "Yes. This conversation is completely off the books. No survellaince, no recordings, and no one watching us."

The Awoken girl waited a bit longer, before hesitantly removing her helmet. Dim green eyes, red with tears, stared at Six morosely. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, "I've been fighting a war to defend humanity for the last ten years. As a Guardian, all human life was sacred... You're asking me to go against everything I have ever known, to assist you in dealing with this... 'White Mask' organization. To kill humans. Do you understand that?"

Six looked as if she wanted to respond, but was stopped by Tachanka, "Six, allow me." The Russian smiled sadly at Stella, sighing, "Stella, you must understand something. In this time, Humanity isn't united as I presume they are in your time. We are constantly at war with each other. Every country has their own ideals, and they all fight to defend them. However, the White Masks are not represented by any country. They kill indescriminantly, and are hell bent on destroying the human race. We aren't asking you to kill humans. We're asking you to keep us from destroying ourselves."

"Yes, bu-"

"Stella, you remind me of Gustave, or Doc as you know him. He's a medic who hates taking a life. However, he knows that his skills are needed on the battlefield. I remember asking him why he kills, and do you want to know his response? He said, 'I find that in order to save a life, you sometimes have to take one.' Don't look at this as just killing a man... Somewhere, you're saving someone from a grizzely death at the hands of bioterrorists."

Stella paused, a small light entering her eyes as she processed what the Russian said. After a moment, a look of determination crossed her face, and she nodded to Six, "They have my ship, and the Hive sample."

Six nodded gravely, "Yes. However, I doubt they'll be able to weaponize it very soon. According to the report from Tachanka, the pathogen acts immediately, with no cure other than a rather copious amount of bullets."

"There's only one person who's ever been 'cured' of the Hive corruption, and it's the same woman who I was delivering that sample to. Ghost, I... Right..." Pain flickered in her eyes, but she quickly pushed it away. "Do you know where they took the Arcadia?"

Six shook her head, a flicker of concern appearing in her eyes, "Unfortunately, no. They went off the grid as soon as they took your spacecraft. We have our best intelligence operatives working around the clock to track them down. Until then, I want you to help my operators with other situations. The White Mask organization may have taken a rather volatile weapon, but until they know how to utilize it without utterly wiping out the entirety of the human race, they will continue their usual methods of bombings, hostage situations, and standard bio-terror attacks. I understand that as a Guardian, you were sworn to defend humanity. I'm asking you to continue that oath... With a few less restrictions."

Stella raised an eyebrow, already guessing what these restrictions were. She had managed to hear a bit about Rainbow, and something told her they didn't exactly go through normal red tape to get things done, "I think I already know what you're going on about. However, I doubt that you'd just let me join your little club."

Six glanced at Tachanka, "I see what you mean, Alex... Stella, all Operators have to go through a series of mock simulations to determine their inclination towards attacking and defending the objective. Most of them are simple training excercises, though some are live fire. You will be killing humans in this line of work. I need to know if you are willing to commit to the team."

Stella nodded, "Yes, ma'am. I have a question, though. My Queen of Spades should be acceptable for this era, but I am going to need other weapons. How should I acquire them?"

Tachanka took over at this point, standing up and unlocking Stella's restraints, "Pulse and myself will arm you to the teeth, Stella. However, we need to make a codename for yo-"

"Lupa."

Tachanka paused, scrutinzing Stella carefully before noticing the stylized wolf emblazoned on her shoulder and nodding, "Wolf Queen... Okay then, Lupa. Let's go to the armoury, and you can tell me what you used in your... previous occupation."

Stella nodded, rubbing her wrists to get the circulation back in them as she followed Alex out of the interrogation room. As she put her helmet back on, she noticed idly that there were more cramped quarters in the corridors of where ever they were. The strange humming was louder now, and more rythmic, like an engine. They must have been transported to some sort of ship. Interesting. After a moment, she decided to go ahead and tell Alex about her usual weapons. "As a guardian, I used a rather large variety of weapons, though I will just explain the more mundane ones. Snipers, DMRs, burst and auto rifles, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, LMG's, swords, and bows... Along with the occasional hand cannon, side arm, and shotgun."

Tachanka seemed to pause, letting the rather large list of weapons sink in, "Oh. I suppose you're comfortable with all of them then?"

Stella shook her head, "Do I look like a Gunsmith? I had a tendency to stick to mid ranged to long range weapons as my primary, usually a full auto or burst rifle, a hand cannon er... revolver for my secondary, and a sword as my tertiary. Every once in a while, I'd grab a bow or sniper if the range was needed."

Tachanka nodded quietly, thinking carefully, "Well, Lupa, I think I might have just the thing for you." He pulled out a small rectangular device, turning on and pressing the screen a few times. After a moment, he turned it to show Stella the image. "This is a M16A4, standard issue in the United States Armed Forces until the advent of the M4 carbine. It has two firing modes, semi and burst, and has many attachments to include optics, laser sights, and a slung-under grenade launcher."

Stella raised an eyebrow, inspecting the weapon. It looked nice, if a little primitive for her tastes. She nodded, "It seems acceptable. I assume I wouldn't be limited to this weapon, correct? After all, there's a weapon for every occasion. What if I need more firepower, or larger bullets for armour peneration?"

Alex laughed heartily, "Well, that depends... how accurate are you?"

Stella grinned like a shark, remembering Cayde trying to convince her to join the Hunter Vanguard, "I don't miss."

Tachanka nodded, "You need to meet our Korean operator, Dokkeabi. She uses a Mk14 EBR and a BOS-G12 shotgun. Both have a powerful kick, and both have the range. The BOS-G only has two shots before it needs to be reloaded, though. It's a high-risk, high-reward weapon. If you hit your shot, you're practically guaranteed a kill. If not... then I suggest you fall back, quickly."

Stella nodded, the battle rifle sounded like her cup of tea. Range, power, and accuracy. "Right, I'll er... get with her later. What else do I need?"

Tachanka frowned suddenly, as if realizing something, "Each operator brings a unique weapon or gadget to the table. It will be hard to convince the others to accept you if you have nothing but bullets and wits."

The Awoken girl shook her head, "My armour is still operational, as well as the hover systems. I'm betting I'm a lot more durable and faster than most of your operators."

"Hover systems? Are you saying you can fly?"

Stella turned to Alex, who was looking torn between amusement and astonishment. Slowly, she nodded, and he gestured for her to follow him. The duo traversed the ship in silence, going through dozens of twisting, cramped corridors, until they arrived inside a massive hanger. Stella realized they were in some sort of aircraft carrier. Tachanka gestured towards three people, a blond haired woman, an Asian girl with a beanie, and an older, dark skinned man with an eyepatch. The blonde woman appeared to be teaching them how to use a rappel system to scale a makeshift wall, up to a platform about twenty feet above them.

"Meghan! I want you to meet our newest operator, Stella, codename: Lupa. She just gave me a rather interesting piece of information."

Meghan raised an eyebrow, gesturing for the other two to stop what they were doing, "So, Six trusts you enough to join us?"

Stella nodded, "I think trust is a strong word though. More like, she wants to keep an eye on me, and the easiest way to do that is to add me to her roster."

The blonde woman laughed, "I suppose so. You can call me Valkyrie, everyone does. This here is Grace and Vicente, codenames Dokkeabi and Capitao. We're just going over how to most effectively scale a wall. Care to join us? I hear Six wants you on the attacker side."

Tachanka laughed, gesturing for Stella to go ahead, "Show them, little star. I want to see this, too."

Stella raised an eyebrow, before looking up at the platform and shrugging. With a single leap, she shot upwards. The soft hiss of her jets were barely audible in the belly of the aircraft carrier, making her ascent stealthy and quick. She landed on the platform, looking down at the humans. They wore matching expressions of shock and awe. Valkyrie let out a soft whistle, "Well... That will certainly be an advantage on attack. Have you already decided on her weapons, Tachanka?"

The bear of a man laughed, nodding, "Of, course, comrade. As much as I would have enjoyed strapping her down with some Russian firepower, I decided to direct her to the American M16A4. I was hoping you could help with that side. As for her other weapon... Grace, sweetheart, is your Mk14 in the armoury?"

The beanie girl frowned, looking at Tachanka over her glasses, "You already know it is. Why do you... wait, why doesn't she already have her own weapons? Her government should be providing everything."

Stella decided to intervene when Tachanka looked like he didn't have an answer, "I'm English, but my government disavowed me after I refused to follow an order that would have put the lives of civillians at risk." She jumped off the platform, landing softly on the floor. "I am not at liberty to discuss my former occupation, nor my employers, as it has been deemed classified by Six herself."

Tachanka and Valkyrie nodded in approval. They knew the truth, of course, but neither of them had actually come up with a good cover story for the time traveller. Capitao grinned, letting out a hearty laugh, "Well, if Six deemed it prudent enough to classify it, I don't think I'll be poking that jaguar any time soon! Welcome to the team, Lupa! When are we doing her initiation?''

Tachanka chuckled, "Believe me, Capitao, I think she's been through enough of an initiation. Even so, Stella still has to go through a few tests. Dokkeabi, she'll be partnering with you. Show her the ropes."

The Korean girl blanched, "B-But, Tachanka, I'm still in training myself. Thatcher hasn't cleared me for something like that."

The Russian shrugged, "Not big problem. I will speak to comrade Thatcher about pushing your papers forward. You will still be working with him, of course. Consider Lupa as a sort of... final project. Get Lupa acquainted with the battle rifle. I will see about getting another one on hand for her.

Tachanka walked off with Cap and Valk, leaving the Korean operator muttering darkly, "Don't they know I already have enough on my plate? God, I hope Vigil doesn't find out... Alright, listen up, new girl. I w-"

Stella held up her hand, silencing the girl with a single gesture, "Please... You don't have to act that way. Just be yourself. I'm not going to judge... much." She smirked at the flabbergasted expression on Dokkeabi's face. "I'm not some military stiff who follows protocols to a t. Hell, I hated most of my superiours. I'm just here to help where I can. Now, shall we go take a look at this rifle I keep hearing so much about?"

Dokkeabi remained silent for a second, before giving a little shrug, "Alright then. It's nice to meet someone on the team who isn't all about the job. I'm Grace Nam. My callsign comes from the fact that my logo is a goblin... and Vigil just likes to call me 'little goblin' on a account that I keep hacking his phone and annoying him."

Stella laughed, shaking her head, "Maybe he has a reason to call you that, then. I take it you don't like this... Vigil?"

Grace shook her head vehemently, leading Stella out of the hanger, "No way in hell. He was with me when we were attached to the 707th SMB, and I'm positive that he's reporting back to our superiours to try and get me kicked off the team for disorderly conduct. So, no. I don't like him."

Stella nodded, "Fair enough. No one likes someone who's a goody-two-shoes 24/7. Hell, I kicked one of my superiours in the groin for pulling that act on me... I'm surprised I wasn't shot right then and there."

Grace laughed, "Oh I wish I could see something like that on video!"

Stella shrugged, "It didn't really help his case by insulting the woman I was close enough with to call a sister. 'Threat to the city' my ass..." She shook her head, trailing off with a thinly veiled threat in a language Grace couldn't understand. "Anyway, what's this unit like? I haven't heard much of anything other than it's some sort of specialized counter-terror unit. The only people I've seen are you, the operators at the rappel course, and Six. Oh, and Pulse, Doc, and Caveira. She was quite rude. I don't like her."

Grace raised an eyebrow at the rather intense venom in Stella's voice, "The skull face lady? Yeah, she can be a bit scary, but I don't think that warrants that much dislike. What did she do to you?"

Stella remained silent for a moment, a pang echoing in her chest and mind at the absence of her friend and Ghost. Eventually, she spoke in a subdued voice, "She attempted to attack me from behind while I was mourning for a friend who just sacrificed himself to save me."

Grace cringed, "O-Oh, um... I'm sorry for your loss. Oh look, the Armoury!" The Korean girl quickly marched ahead, opening a side door to reveal a rather large armoury/workshop. "Oh, hi Thermite! I didn't know you were working in here today."

An older man with a standard, military buzzcut looked up from his work, taking off a pair of welding goggles and setting aside a strange looking mat that appeared to be lined with C4 charges. He grinned, flashing white teeth that contrasted greatly with his soot covered face as he spoke with a southern drawl, "Grace, honey! I thought Vakyrie would be keeping you for another three hours! How's our new girl on the block doing? Staying out of trouble, I assume?"

Dokkaebi laughed, "I'm not the new girl anymore! Oh, Stella, meet Jordan. He goes by thermite on account of his rather... explosive ordinance."

The American man laughed again, "Let me guess, she has to registre the weapons her country's sending her? Let me get the paperwork."

Stella shook her head, "Actually, I've been dissavowed. I do have a personal sidearm, but Grace is going to show me the rifle she uses."

Thermite raised an eyebrow, taking a better look at Stella. He had never seen body armour like that, and he probably would have heard of a counter-terror unit that dressed up like some science fiction soldiers. And the wolf insigna on her shoulder pauldron was rather strange and almost archaic looking. There was more to this 'Stella' than met the eye. "Alright then. We'll need to get you a weapon locker when we get back to HQ. The range should be open. I'll get you girls some ammo."

Grace sighed as the man left to grab some brass, moving to a small station decorated with little goblin logos. There were four weapons sitting on a wall rack, two machine pistols, and what appeared to be a double barreled shotgun and the battle rifle. Grace hefted the battle rifle up, and Stella had to resist the urge to snicker. Despite Grace looking like she seriously knew how to fuck shit up with the rifle, it still looked rather large in her hands. The Korean girl racked the charging handle, holding weapon out too her, "I'm sure you know how a fire-arm works, so I'm not really going to train you with it. We can see how well you shoot it though. The sights are adjusted to me, so you might have to compensate some since I wear glasses..."

Stella nodded, looking around carefully for her own weapon. Surprisingly, she saw a relatively new looking workshop, with her hand cannon resting on the table. She gestured to the space, "That's my weapon, the Queen of Spades. You can go ahead and check it out, since I'm using your weapon."

Grace handed the rifle over, before checking out the massive hand cannon and picking it up. If the battle rifle had looked a bit large for her, then the hand cannon was absolutely gargantuan. She looked over at Stella, who seemed even smaller than her, and back at the cannon, "How on Earth do you fire this thing? It's huge!"

Stella glanced over from the rifle and shrugged, "I fire it. It's a hand cannon made to punch through armour, not some sidearm. When Thermite get's back, grab one of the ammo pouches... It should be the one with a white marking on it."

Thermite walked in at that moment, carrying several magazines of ammunition, "Alright, lady's let's throw some lead." He took the girls to the back of the armoury, where a 25 metre range had been set up. With a grin, he handed Stella a magazine. "20 shots, make them count."

A single silhouette target popped up at the end of the range, prompting Stella to load the rifle with a fluidity that was way to easy for comfort. She turned, and let loose a torrent of bullets, squeezing off 20 rounds in less than ten seconds. As the last bullet casing dropped to the floor with a ping, Thermite and Dokkaebi stared at Stella with stunned silence. They hesitantly lowered their hands from their ears, having put them there when Stella started firing out of the blue. Thermite pressed a button, bringing the target to the front. It looked like there were only fifteen or sixteen bullet holes in the target, but the electric sensor attached to it read 20 hits... Meaning Stella had managed to shoot with one hundred percent accuracy, without even zeroing in the weapon! Grace and Jordan looked at the Awoken girl with stunned disbelief, with the latter whistling loudly, "Well, remind me not to get on your bad side, new girl. Jesus, I think you could give Glaz a run for his money, and he's the unit's designated sniper!"

Grace swallowed nervously, "Uh... Stella, did you even _feel_ the recoil?"

Stella shrugged, "Yeah, there was a little kick, but nothing I haven't dealt with before. So, you ready to fire Queen?"

The Korean girl looked at the hand cannon in her hands, suddenly terrified. But she wasn't one to back down from a challenge. She opened the ammo bag to see revolver speed loaders, only they were solid cylinders, rather than individual bullets on a disc. With some difficulty, and a few pointers from Stella, she managed to figure out how to load the massive revolver. Thermite pulled out a phone as Grace stepped up to the firing position, nervously readying herself for some large recoil. She was expecting the kick of a 50 calibre weapon, hopefully a .45 ACP weapon, but nothing could prepare her for the monstrous, booming shockwave that literally knocked her off her feet, prompting Stella to dart forward and catch her. Thermite began laughing his ass off, struggling to hold up his phone as Dokkaebi stared upward, her glasses askew and cradling her potentially broken wrist.

Thermite went over to where the Queen of Spades had been thrown, picking it up with a surprised expression, "Jesus, this thing feels like it's made out of lead!" He stepped up to the firing range, bracing himself and aiming down range. After a moment, he fired as well, stumbling back a few steps and quickly wringing out his hand with a pained expression. "For the love of God, woman! Are you telling me you can actually shoot this thing?"

Stella scowled, looking at the man out the orner of her eye as she tended to Grace. After a moment, she stood up, and grabbed the weapon from him, aiming it downrange with one hand and firing the remaining eleven shots with no hesitation. It jumped in her hand a bit, but her control was too good to let it go astray. The entire silhouette target was blown apart by the weapon. She popped the quick load cartridge out, dropping it in her ammo pouch, before strapping both it and her weapon to her hip. Then she went back over to Grace and helped her to her feet, "Where is the med bay? I think she may have broken her wrist."

Jordan's eyes widened, and he cursed, "Shit! I'm sorry, Grace. Come on, I'll show you the way."

The strange group quickly rushed out of the armoury, nearly taking out Valkyrie and Caveira on their way out. Valkyrie looked at Grace's dishelveled, pained appearance, and Thermite's panicked expression, and immediately knew that something was wrong, "What happened?"

Thermite cleared his throat, "Sorry, ma'am. We were in the range, letting Lupa use Dokkaebi's rifle, when we decided to test fire Lupa's personal weapon. We weren't expecting the kick, and it may have injured Dokkaebi's wrist."

Valkyrie sighed, stepping closer to inspect Grace's now swollen wrist, "Well, that must have been some weapon."

Clearly, she didn't believe the story. What weapon had that much recoil? Stella rolled her eyes, drawing her weapon, "This is the Queen of Spades. A friend of mine gave it to me before he was brutally murdered. It's made to pretty much kill anything that moves, no matter how thick the armour. It uses DU* rounds at a .75 Calibre, making it capable of penetrating most armours. Each quick load magazine is also encased in a solid lead casing, allowing for containment and a 13 round magazine count. This weapon will punch through six inches of solid steel, and shatter most titanium or tungsten armours with relative ease."

Thermite blinked owlishly, "What sort of monsters was your counter-terror unit after?"

Stella replied cooly, "The kind that would make you go running for your mummy. Now, can we get Grace here to the med bay? And you might want to get your wrist checked out as well, Jordan."

Jordan watched as Valkyrie lead Stella and Grace away, a sudden chill going down his spine, "I thought the White Mask was bad... What the hell was she shooting at that required literal anti-tank rounds in a sidearm?"

Caveira shook her head, "You remember the operation in France? The one where Pulse was nearly killed and the terrorists got away with the obj? She's the one who pulled our asses out of the fire. Got us together long enough to mount an attack that helped save Doc. Believe me when I say we shouldn't trust her."

Jordan glanced at Cav, who had a plaster on her nose, and a rather large bruise on her face, "Was she the one to give you the shiner?"

The interrogator scowled and marched off after Valkyrie, not responding to the Texan. Jordan grinned, getting the answer he wanted. At least one of them. He would have to convince Grace to hack into the R6 files and try to figure out where this Lupa came from.

 _ **Alright! This should make up for the short chapter I gave you last time. I'll try to get another chapter up for TFoC before I go to the field. It'll be about a month before I can effectively work on any writing at all. Still I want some reviews and suggestions on my stories when I get back in April! Now, I'm wondering who I should ship Stella with here. I was originally thinking Dokkaebi, but I'm starting to think that she could potentially go with several operators.**_

 _ *** DU: Depleted Uranium. Used as a form of anti-armour/anti-tank. Unlike normal bullets which splash or shatter against armour, DU rounds impact, causing the area around the tip of the round to vaporize and leave a second point. This pierces the armour, sending the heavy bullet clean through and spraying the inside with shrapnel and semi-irradiated gas. Nasty stuff.**_


	4. A Grand Entrance!

_**Hello, once again, loyal readers! I managed to survive NTC, and will be heading back home shortly, which means I'm back to writing. With that in mind, my schedual will be a bit hectic with the Recovery Period, so that process will be a tad slow. Don't forget to review the story, and check out the rest of my works. And if you want to support me even further, then go look up the Writing Soldier on Patron, and do a bit of donating! And pay attention to the author's notes at the beginning and end, I usually put out some pertinent information in these sections.**_

"Alright, Team Rainbow. We have a new member in our ranks."

The Operators murmured amongst themselves as they stood in front of SIX. They had all heard rumors of a new Operator undergoing training in secret for the last few weeks, and only a few had actually met the rather secretive Operator-in-Training. All eyes were on SIX and the armoured operator standing next to her. Her armour had been recoloured from the bright blue and purple, to a much darker black with a stylized golden wolf on her right shoulder pauldron.

"This is Lupa. She will be joining the Attackers in the unit as a soft and hard breacher. Her primary weapons are the American M16A4, and the Korean M14 EBR. Her sidearm is a personal weapon she calls the Queen of Spades... Try not to step in front of it."

One of the Defender's, Frost, frowned and stepped forward, "SIX, you mentioned she's a soft and hard breacher... What does that mean?"

SIX smiled, an oddly mischievious glint in her eyes, "I suppose you'll have to find out, won't you? We'll be doing war games today, with the first one being "Secure the Area." Frost, Valkyrie, Tachanka, Pulse, and Rook. You'll be taking defense. Head down to the Bank mock-up and get prepared."

She waited until the five named Operators were gone, before facing the Attackers, "Dokkaebi, Finka, Montagne, and Thermite, you will be taking Lupa with you on attack. I expect to see a win here. The rest of you get to the observation platform. Dismissed."

The four humans nodded, waiting for the rest of Rainbow to leave, beore approaching Lupa. Dokkaebi grinned, looking at the armoured woman, "Hey, Lupa. Sounds like you passed the training courses."

Lupa nodded, speaking with a dry, tired voice, "Barely... I had to run the hostage situation several times due to... complications. My CTU didn't deal with hostage situations. We tended to pretty much kill anything that moved. So I may or may not have shot the hostage on numerous occasions."

Thermite shook his head, an amused grin on his face, "Alright then. Lucky you, we don't have to deal with a hostage this match. So, go nuts. Oh, did you get an nano-shot from Finka?"

Lupa shook her head, "No. SIX thought it would be a bit much if I had any further advantages than I do now." She turned her head slightly, indicating that she was looking at the other Operators. "I'm sorry if this has come on without warning. It was decided that I should avoid the rest of the team until it was confirmed that I would be a part of Rainbow."

Montagne nodded, speaking with a rough French accent, "I suppose we can't do anything about that now. However, I must ask... What country are you from? You sound a bit English, but I don't see any identifying markers besides that wolf on your shoulder."

Thermite cleared his throat, "Lupa can't actually answer any questions about her country, as she was dissavowed from her CTU due to an internal conflict."

"Thank you, Thermite..." Lupa nodded in agreement, resting her hand on the Queen and restlessly drumming out a rapid beat. "How long does it usually take them to set up?"

Finka shrugged, "They should be about done. Lupa, where's your rapple gear? I've seen your work station in the armoury, and you don't have any gear there at all. Actually, it looks like you live there, because I've noticed a cot placed in the station."

Lupa shrugged, "Yes, I sleep in the armoury. It's easier and cheaper than trying to sort out the paperwork to legally acquire a home right now."

Dokkaebi raised an eyebrow, thinking quietly to herself. Thermite had come to her shortly after breaking her wrist with Queen. He had wanted her to access R6 filesto try and find out more about Lupa. Oddly though, her file didn't exist. Or rather, she had an 'in training' file, but that was it. No personal information, no history, no records of any kind. Something had gone down in France though, as she found a rather odd mention of her in Tachanka's report. Said report had most of the information redacted, so the most that she could glean from it was that R6 was assigned to defend some unknown artifact and biological anomally. The White Mask had shown up and stolen the artifact, and the 'anomally' was reportedly killed in a firefight. But she still saw reports of Quarintine equipment, something about a crash landing, and an unknown virus. It was all very hush-hush, and she didn't like it.

"Dokkaebi! Are you paying attention?"

The Korean operator jumped slightly, turning to face Montagne, or 'Monty', as she called him, "I'm sorry, Monty. Zoned out for a moment there, what was the question?"

The heavy Frenchman rumbled, "There was no question. We're ready to move out."

Dokkaebi nodded quickly, following the other operators out to the mock set up of a bank. Thermite gestured for them to gather round, "Alright, listen up. OPFOR has gotten their hands on a rather nasty biohazard, and it's our job to secure it. Plain and simple. They've stored it in the vault, and plan on contaminating the money within. We have four minutes to get in and secure the container, or neutrilize the threat. Understood?"

The other operators nodded. Dokkaebi swallowed nervously, glancing at Lupa. Oddly though, despite Lupa having never done a training excercise with them, the new operator didn't seemed fazed by the thought of screwing up. She checked to make sure the other Operators were occupied with planning their own assault, before moving closer to her. "Hey, Lupa. You aren't nervous?"

The woman shrugged, "It wouldn't make a difference if I was. I have an objective, and it's my job to complete it. Nothing to really think about. How's the wrist?"

Dokkaebi grimaced, looking down at her hand, "Oh, it's fine. Just remind me never to shoot your weapon again."

"Alright, don't shoot my weapon again."

Dokkaebi blinked owlishly, watching as Lupa started strolling casually towards the bank. She was about to warn the woman about Rook's ACOG, but a loud crack told her it was too late. She yelped as the nine millimetre paint round slammed into Lupa's helmet. Her head was knocked to the side a bit, but she didn't seem to care. Slowly, she turned towards Rook, who was waiting for Lupa to be told she was down, or assumed that she already knew she was down. Or so he thought. She drew her hand cannon, pointing it in his general direction. A single shot rang out, and instead of a paint round, a .75 calibre rubber bullet tore through the air, punching through the plaster mock-up of the bank's concrete walls and sending Rook diving for cover.

Thermite whistled, "No paint rounds for you then... Let's go. I suppose you have Rook, Lupa?"

She nodded, running at the third floor window Rook had been peeking from. Finka was about to ask about her rapple gear again, but was silenced as she threw herself into the air, the ambient noise around her drowning out the jets of air in the armour. On a whim Dokkaebi used her ACOG to look at the window, and saw Rook lean around and look through his peek hole. She couldn't help but giggle at his stunned look as Stella dove through the window and tackled him to the ground, taking him out of the situation.

Doc's voice came over the bank's loudspeaker, and it sounded like he was trying not to laugh as well, "Rook, you're- *snort*- You're out."

Thermite just shook his head, "Well... I guess that's our signal. Let's make that bread, people!"

Lupa looked down at a stunned Rook, "Sorry about that. I don't like people messing with my armour."

The French operator just shook his head, "Jesus christ... I think Caviera has competition for the scariest operator now."

Lupa shrugged, about to turn away, before a thought occured to her, "Hey, are you downed or dead?"

Rook pulled out a book and propped himself against the wall, "Oh, I'm dead. I'll just be up here until the situation is finished."

"Pity... I was about to give Cav a run for her money in another area as well." She frowned, looking down at Rook's phone and opening a channel to Dokkaebi, "Doki, I have a phone up here, ready to hack. Rook was the only one up here as far as I can tell. You can- Oh."

She glanced at the window she came through to see Dokkaebi already rappling through. The Korean operator rushed over to the phone, muttering a quick apology to Rook as she 'hacked the cameras,' "Alright, we have Cams. I- LUPA, LOOK OUT!"

Lupa spun around to see a green block of C4 flying into the room. She grabbed Dokkaebi, throwing her behind a desk before throwing herself flat on the floor as the room was suddenly covered with red paint and noise. She sat up, trying to clear the ringing in her ears. She could see the blurred outline of Pulse round the corner, shotgun in hand as he walked up to her smugly, "Doesn't look like that armour works against plastic explosives, Lupa. Better luck ne-"

The loud chatter of automatic gunfire cut him off, and red paintballs slammed into his chest. He yelled in pain and surprise, falling back on his rear as Dokkaebi vaulted over the desk she was behind. Instead of killing the bald man though, she went to help Lupa to her feet. The armoured woman shook herself off, nodding a quick thanks to her partner. Dokkaebi raised her weapon to finish the defender off, but was stopped as Lupa pushed her arm down.

"Hang on, I want to interrogate him."

Dokkaebi stammered a sharp retort in Korean, before switching back to English as Lupa crouched next to the defender and drew Queen, "Lupa! You can't do that! It's not part of the rules! Caveira is the only one who can interrogate people.

"War is war, and I want information." She grinned wickedly at Pulse, the expression hidden behind her helmet. "Now, you see that fist sized hole in the wall, next to the window? My Queen of Spades made that hole... with a rubber bullet. Now, it's not going to kill you, but I'm sure you don't want several broken bones, and trust me when I say I know which ones to break without causing you to pass out. So... tell me where your comrades are, and I'll let my friend here finish you off without any pain."

Pulse looked at the massive hand cannon in Lupa's hand, and then the hole in the wall. Shit.

Meanwhile, in the Observation Room, Caveira couldn't decide whether she should laugh at the scene, or get angry at having someone interrogate a defender, "Can she actually do that, Alex?"

Doc shrugged, "Honestly, I'm not sure... But it certainly makes things interesting, oui? We'll just tell her to refrain from things like that in the future. Besides, I think these two are going to need all the help they can get."

Cav raised an eyebrow, glancing at a second screen, where Monty and the rest of the team were being picked off by Frost traps and Tachanka's turret. The Lord looked like he was having a field day, too. They could just barely hear his laughter over the roar of his LMG.

Back in the bank, Pulse had just spilled the beans, earning a knife from Dokkaebi. Lupa frowned, thinking carefully, "Alright, Frost has the stairs covered... And it sounds like Tachanka and Valkyrie are sitting in the Obj. Any ideas?"

Before Lupa's partner could respond, Caveira's cold voice spoke up, "Two friendlies remaining, Attackers. I suggest you get a move on."

Lupa cursed, pulling out her phone to get a look at the camera's. Her eyes widened as she saw all of the other attackers looking mildly put out in what appeared to be an underground garage. "Right... not going there. It looks like Tachanka has that covered. Frost... There she is. It looks like she's trying to roam on us. Ring her up."

Dokkaebi nodded quickly, pulling out her tablet and calling up the defender phones. Almost immediately, a loud buzzing could be heard, followed by Frost's sharp voice cursing as she struggled to turn off her phone. Lupa gestured for Dokki to take the left door while she moved to the right exit of the office they were in. Almost immediately, Frost began firing on Dokki, forgetting about her phone. The Korean operator yelped, throwing herself behind cover."

"Come out here, Little Goblin, so I can finish this job!"

"Hey! Shut up, you maple syrup guzzling, tree hugger!"

Frost growled, "Oh, Tree Hugger, is it? Maybe I should down you and then put a trap on you! I still have one left, you know!"

Lupa ignored the exchange, using it as a diversion so she could sneak up behind Frost. She watched her for a moment, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Hey, maybe I'll make your 'death' quick and painless if you tell me where your Lupa friend is! I know she's in there with you!"

Dokkaebi, who was on her tablet, didn't say a word. She could see Lupa standing behind Frost. It both amused her to no end... and completely terrified her. Lupa pulled out her knife and tapped Frost on the shoulder with it.

Doc's voice came back on, "Frost, you're dead."

The Canadian woman stiffened, turning slowly to see Lupa standing behind her, "Oh... There you are. You're pretty damned sneaky, you know that?"

"So I've been told. Come on Dokki. Let's go."

Dokkaebi nodded, following Lupa towards the main stairs. It took her a moment to register the name she used though, "Hang on, did you just call me 'Dokki?' Were did that come from?"

"Shorter version of your codename. Just thought it would be easier. Drone out the stairs. I'll keep you covered."

The Korean Operator nodded reluctantly, still disgruntled by the name. She tossed out her drone, driving it down the stairs. Almost immediately, Valkyrie shot it, coating the device with red paint. Dokkaebi cursed, "She's watching the stairs, and Chanka's watching the Garage. I'm betting Valk has a black eye watching the tunnel access as well. How are we going to do this with only 45 seconds left?"

Lupa frowned, looking at the stair case carefully, and then at a nearby elevator shaft, "Right... You're going to ring them up, stun them, and just fire wildly. Make as much noise as possible. Don't worry about hitting me... I've been wanting to do this for a while now."

Dokkaebi's eyes widened as Lupa walked over to the elevator, pulling out a breach charge. She was going to attempt a vertical breach in what most of the operators called the 'kill box.' She thought about warning her, but then realized that there wasn't any time. Instead, she did what she was told, ringing up the phones a second time, before pulling out her stun grenades and tossing them in one by one. Once that was done, she charged in with her battle rifle, firing as fast as she could. At the same time, Lupa blew the hatch, dropping down right on top of the stunned and disoriented Valkyrie, who had retreated into the elevator to avoid Dokkaebi's assault. Lupa tackled her to the ground, knifing her in the process and taking her out of the match.

"One OPFOR remaining, thirty seconds left."

Lupa tossed a frag grenade to Dokkaebi, gesturing towards the entrance of the Garage. Then she pulled out her Queen of Spades and prepared to breach again. But before Dokkaebi could acutally throw the grenade, she stepped in a Frost trap, which snapped shut on her leg, causing her to trip and drop the live grenade. Lupa's eyes widened, and she immediately fired on the grenade, 'destroying' it. She quickly knelt down next to Dokkaebi, "Light be damned, what the hell is this thing?"

"It's one of Frost's traps! Leave me and take out Tachanka!"

Lupa growled, before tearing herself away and sprinting towards the Garage. Before she entered the doorway though, she threw herself into the air, her armour launching her across the open area several metres in the air. Tachanka, who assumed that she would be on the ground, crouched like a standard operator, fired at the doorway. His eyes widened, and he began to adjust his aim, but it was too late. The first shot from her cannon practically obliterated the plastic immitation shield on his turret, and her second round impacted him squarely in the head. He was lucky to be wearing the massive helmet, as it only knocked him off the turret rather than cracked his skull wide open. The new operator, still not aware that the situation was over, landed on the turret and spun it around, pointing the weapon at Tachanka. One hand remained on the LMG's trigger, while the other held the Queen, scanning the area for any more threats.

"-tion's over! Lupa, stand down! The Situation's done! You won! Mon dieu, someone get down there and see if Alex is okay!"

The bear of a Russian staggered to his feet, waving Doc's voice off, "I'm fine, Comrades! Just a bit surprised! My helmet protected me for once in these damned situations! Cyka blyat, my head's ringing like a bell!"

Lupa looked around in confusion, slowly lowering her weapons, "I uh... I guess I got a little carried away?

Stella sighed, sitting on the cot in her weapons locker, "Great job, Stella... You've managed to alienate yourself from yet another fireteam." The Awoken sighed, looking down at the charred remains of her Ghost. "Damn it... I wish you were here, Ghost. I don't know what to do. I used to love this armour. It felt safe... I felt like I belonged in it. But now... It feels like a prison. I can't take it off. Not unless I want to end up on the dissection table. I just... I miss the Reef... Mara... the Wolves. Hell, I even miss her prick of a brother, Uldren. Now, I'm surrounded by humans, and I-"

The soldier went silent, shooting to her feet and putting her dead Ghost in an ammo pouch in reaction to the sound of an operator approaching.

"Lupa, there you are..." A shorter, Oriental girl with soft features stood at the entrance of Stella's workshop, looking around at the rather bland area with a mildly confused look. "Hey, aren't you joining us for dinner? You helped win the match for the Attackers, after all. And it was your first match."

Stella quickly shook her head, sitting back down on her cot, "No... I'm not allowed to remove my armour on account of security restrictions. At least, not around other people."

The woman raised an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side, "Well, SIX really wants to protect your identity, doesn't she? You know, I read the report on France. You really saved their asses out there. I'm Sui Mei Lin, by the way. But most of the other Operators just use my codename, Ying."

Stella sighed, looking down at her hands, "No. None of them would have been there if I hadn't arrived."

Ying frowned, crossing her arms as she finally stepped into the workshop, "Wait, it sounds as if you're the reason for Team Rainbow being there. But why? According to the report Grace gave me, we were sent in to assist the French in recovering an artifact and some genetic anomally. I-"

"What!?" Stella shot to her feet, trembling with rage. "You aren't here to try and get me to join the team... Dokkaebi sent you to find out more information!"

Stella growled, moving to go give Grace a piece of her mind. When she made to push Ying aside though, the smaller woman easily grappled with Stella, and pinned her to the ground. Ying forced Stella to remain still, locking her arms behind her back in an impressive demonstration of her CQC skills, "Grace doesn't have anything to do with this. Yes, she did try to convince a few of us to question you a bit more thoroughly, but that's it. Jordan actually put her up to it, just out of his own curiousity. I really did come up here to see if everything was okay. I'm going to let you go... can I trust you not to rush out and deck the other operators, as entertaining as that might be?"

Stella nodded slowly, not trusting herself to speak. As soon as Ying released her, she backed away, rubbing her shoulder with a wince, "That... was a nice hold... And why would you be concerned about someone you've only seen, never met?"

Ying rolled her eyes, "You're part of the team, Stella. That should be reason enough. Team Rainbow is a family. We look out for each other. Yeah, we might dislike each other, but we always have each other's backs. We would trust each other with our lives... Caveira nonwithstanding... And I can tell something's wrong with you." She stood up, poking her head out of the door, before closing the workshop and turning back to her. "Take the helmet off."

Stella blanched, her eyes darting towards Queen on her workdesk, "You know I can't do that. I have orders from SIX, and I can't risk-"

"Bull. We all have TS clearance here, and we're completely alone. Plus..." She grinned, pulling out a holding up a small black bag. "I brought makeup. We can disguise you!"

Stella bit her lip, thinking carefully, "You... You aren't going to let me be without this, are you?"

Ying shook her head, still smiling expectantly, "Nope. And I won't be the only one. Just the nicest and most open about it."

Stella was torn. On one hand, she wanted nothing more than to rip her helmet off and throw it away... mainly out of rage. On the other hand though, she wanted to hide away, live her life out away from the humans. As hard as that would be... After a moment, she hesitantly raised her hand up to her neck, undoing the seal on her helmet with a hiss of air. She noticed the flicker of confusion on Ying's face. She must have thought it was just a regular helmet. And then she took the helmet off. Ying gasped as she instantly connected the proverbial dots.

"The biological anomally... That was you!"

Stella nodded sollemnly, wringing her hands nervously, "I'm... From the future. I can't give you all the details, because it's just not something I want to talk about, but I can say that my race is descended from the Human race, and I used to assist with the defense of the last of the human race... SIX has given me asylum within the ranks of Rainbow while we figure out what the White Mask organization is going to do with the virus I was carrying on my ship."

The part about the virus wasn't completely true, but Ying didn't need to know that the literal apocalypse was upon them if the White Mask let the Hive loose upon the world. Ying nodded seriously, before glancing at the little make-up bag she brought to try and disguise Stella with, "Uh... I might need more make-up."

Stella couldn't help herself. She began to laugh. At first, it was just a light chuckle, then it quickly turned into full on laughter. Ying looked rather alarmed at the sudden change in attitude, but didn't say anything. Stella eventually calmed down, her laughter dying out and turning into a soft sob. She wiped her eyes tiredly, "I'm sorry... You just reminded me of a... friend. My Ghost. He was a sort of... virtual companion. Helped to keep me alive during missions since I usually went solo. He gave his life to keep me alive during the France incident..."

Ying blinked owlishly, obviously not expecting the rather open explanation, "Oh... I'm sorry for your loss. But, you're part of a team now. You don't have to work alone anymore. You obviously know how to work in a team, though I think we need to tone down your er... commander aspect. Technically speaking, Dokkaebi should have been ordering you around. She was your senior. And you shouldn't have gone out in the open like that. Barring your oddly durable helmet, assuming future tech there, he should have killed you there. In fact, the only reason you got the drop on him was because he expected you to be dead."

Stella winced slightly, nodding in agreement, "Yeah... I know. Trust me, my Ghost always had something to say about my rather... reckless nature."

Ying chuckled, "Well, try to tone it down. You wouldn't want that to get someone on your team killed, would you?" Before Stella could answer, she opened up her make-up bag and pulled out some supplies. "Come here. It won't be perfect, but I can at least tone down the more alien aspects of your appearance. We'll have to come up with something for your eyes later, but they shouldn't be a big problem. Hell, most of the attackers are probably drunk right now.

Stella frowned, nodding in agreement. Once Ying began applying the 'disguise,' she went still. It was strange. She had seen Mara put on make up dozens of times before this, but she never did it herself. After all, what was the point of make-up when you wore a helmet for day's at a time. Or when you regularly got blown up? She let her thoughts sort of roam like this while Ying worked, not really paying attention until the human reached back into her bag and pulled out a little pocket mirror.

"Here, have a look and tell me what you think."

Stella nodded, taking the mirror and hesitantly looking at her reflection. What she saw surprised her. Gone was the harsh, Awoken warrior who had spent years fighting a losing war. The shimmering Light under her skin was hidden under the makeup, and the sharp, angular shape of her face had been softened. She honestly looked like a kinder, more human Mara Sov. Sure, she was still extremely pale, but not inhumanely so. She was tempted to touch her face to verify that it was her, but resisted the urge to do so, "Wow... You're good at this."

Ying smiled happily, "Thanks. I had to put my sister's make-up on when she went to dance recitals. Had a bit of practice there. Are you ready to go eat?"

Stella steeled herself, before nodding nervously, "Yeah... I suppose I have to face the music sooner or later."

 _ **Yeah, I know people were expecting me to choose Dokki, or wanted Frost or Valk, but I have a good reason to stand by Ying. Dokki is... well, to call her anti-social is an understatement. She sort of reminds me of myself, especially when I was younger (so does Mute). The arrogance, thinking she's always right, or that she knows best... That she's the smartest person in the room. Not a good match-up for the Deus Ex Machina that is a Guardian, even an ex-Guardian. Valk and Frost are certainly good ideas, but they're more like the stereotypical Vanguard Guardians (Valk is definitely a Titan...). The only thing that really matters to them is that the mission gets done. Ying, on the other hand... Well, she's really in it to help people. Yeah, so are the others, but Ying isn't doing it out of a sense of duty or obligation, she just genuinely wants to help, just like Doc. However, Stella also finds herself sharing something in common with Ying. Both have PTSD. Now, Stella's reason for PTSD is a bit more... dramatic than Ying's, but Ying can definitely help her out.**_

 _ **Now, I have a big question for everyone. Before I went to the field, I asked what you wanted to see next, and while I didn't get too many answers, I did notice a massive spike in traffic over on my Alita RWBY crossover. That will definitely be my next project coming up. My question for you guys presents a choice: RWBY or Harry Potter? I could defintitely rewrite 'Across the Stars,' but the thought of throwing the Sci-Fi, kick-ass cyborg warrior from the future into the magical world of Harry Potter sounds entertaining as well... I'll be heading back to Texas in twelve hours or thereabout, so let me know what you think! And if you want to support me a bit more than just reviews, then head over to my Patron page and donate! I'm the Writing Soldier over there.**_

 _ **NOTE: Will be watching "Into the Spider Verse," so be on the lookout for crossovers with that motley crew involved. Probably Peni Parker centric. Definitely with Harry Potter... Heh Heh... That massive mech rolling around Hogwarts? Pure content gold!**_


	5. The Calm Before The Storm

Stella was no stranger to mess halls and soldiers eating together. The vanguard did the same thing, as did her team of fallen. However, as she was naturally a loner, she usually stuck to her own quarters, or ate with the Queen when requested. What she had never seen, was human soldiers eating together. As Stella approached the mess hall, she could hear laughter and shouting going on. Ying rolled her eyes as a few words filtered out. Something about a buffer and an egg.

"Great, looks like Ash is making fun of Pulse again... Honestly, for the best FBI CTU agents, you would think thEy would be a bit more mature."

Stella raised an eyebrow, rounding the corner and entering the DFAC just in time to see a butter knife flying at her face. She yelled a curse in the Fallen tongue, her hand lashing out and knocking the knife away. All activity in the small mess hall came to an immediate halt as every operator turned to look at Stella. The newest operator bent down, picking up the knife with a frown. Her harsh green eyes raked the collection of humans, before landing on the bald head of Pulse, who's eyes were darting between her, and a red haired woman Stella assumed was Ash. She frowned, holding the knife up with a raised eyebrow, "I'd say stick to bullets, but seeing as you can't really land your one liners either..." She let the reminder of his gloating during the mock situation hang in the air, before her wrist flicked outwards. There was a fluid flash of silver, followed by a solid thud. Slowly, every eye was drawn toward's Jack's hand. There, between his middle and ring finger, was the hilt of the butter knife, with the blade buried completely in the wooden table.

Jack, doing credit to his name, slowly pulled his hand away with calm, even breaths. He looked at the knife, his hand, and then Stella, "You know... you're lucky you didn't hit something important."

Stella smirked, "If I wanted to hit something important, then we wouldn't be needing red paintballs for training."

A large Englishman burst out laughing, clapping Jack on the back, "Oh, she's got you there, mate! How's tha' heartrate doing for yah?"

"Shut the hell up, Baker, or do I need to point out your own receding hairline?"

The older man laughed, smugly stroking his rather prominent moustach and beard, "Ah, but there's a difference between you and I, my Yankee ally. I look good with a receding hairline."

"Alright, you two. That is enough." A woman with brown hair in a ponytail stepped into the small mess hall, pushing a covered cart. Behind her, a woman in a green tracksuit was holding a platter of drinks, struggling not to laugh at the entire situation. The former grinned eagerly at Stella, "So, the new girl... Lupa, right? I heard you have a weapon with enough kick to shatter bones."

Stella nodded wearily, "Yes? My name's Stella... And you just have to be careful with it. The queen isn't the kind of gun you just fire without a bit caution."

Grace Nam snorted, glaring at Stella, "Bullshit. That thing is an anti-tank rifle turned into a handgun, and Lupa can fire it accurately with one hand."

The disguised alien tensed up at the sound of Grace's voice, but forced herself not to speak to the human. She nodded to the brunette, "I suppose you want to test it as well? I would advise against it."

The woman's grin grew wider, "Nothing like that. I'm Zofia. Nice to have another heavy hitting woman on the team. I was confused when I saw your file. You don't seem like the kind of girl who would go around with a weapon like that. Care to spar later?"

Stella surprised herself by nodding curtly at Zofia, "I suppose that would be fine..."

The green clothed girl cleared her throat, "Zofia, if you would start serving the operators, I think we might avoid them trying to eat Eliza again."

"Oh, come on, Monika, that was one time! It's not my fault she's afraid of zombies!"

Stella raised an eyebrow, "Zombies? Why would any of you be afraid of some mythical creature?"

Everyone seemed to go quiet, glancing at each other. Monika set the drinks at everyone's place, glancing at Thermite and nodding. The Texan cleared his throat, "You see... that isn't entirely true. A few ears ago, there was an incident with an old Soviet re-entry pod carrying a rather nasty little parasite back to Earth. Rainbow was called in to deal with it, and Ash was given point. We almost died. Michael was hurt pretty bad..."

Stella froze. A space born pathogen. She glanced at Ying, gesturing to herself discreetly. The oriental woman's eyes widened, and she grabbed Stella, dragging her out of the room. "This 'Hive', was it red and crystaline, taking over human subjects and corrupting them to convert other life?"

"Stella shook her head, a serious expression, "Red? No... but everything else, yes. Do you think I should tell them?"

Ying bit her lip, glancing at the now silent mess hall, "Guys, I know you're listening in... Just give us some privacy." There was a moment of faint grumbling as the conversation started back up, and then she continued. "I'm sure SIX is expecting the secret to come out at some point. I had completely forgotten about this though. The Hive and Chimera... They might not be the same, but it sounds like they operate in similar fashions. I think our team needs to be prepared."

Stella nodded pensively, before glancing at Ying, "Got something to get the makeup off?"

* * *

When Ying and Stella re-entred the mess, all eyes went to them. Ying cleared her throat nervously, "Umm... Stella has something to tell you."

Stella nodded seriously, now wearing her helmet to hide her clean face, "How many of you believe in alien life? Intelligent alien life?"

The various operators looked around at each other, with Thermite and Doc raising their hands. The latter frowned, "Stella, didn't SIX tell you not to-"

"Gustav, SIX already expects you to find out at some point, and I'm sure you all can be trusted with this... I'm not human... and I'm from the future." She removed the helmet, bringing about murmurs of shock and confusion from the various operators in the room. "I am Stella of the House of Wolves, Guardian of the Reef, and Wrath of the Queen. I'm not part f some invasion force, and my appearance here is purely coincidental... However, I am stranded in this time, with no way to get back."

Jordan frowned, glancing at Alex, who was calmly eating his meal, "You knew about this already, didn't you?"

"And if I did, it makes no difference now," The massive Russian wiped his mouth with a napkin, before looking at his fellow operators with a serious expression. "What really matters is what we do with the next bit of inormation. Go ahead, Stella..."

The grey skinned woman nodded, "Thank you, Alex... When I was transported back in time, I was carrying several highly dangerous samples of what my time calls 'The Hive'. It sounds similar to this Chimera virus that your team fought... only infinitely more dangerous. It's fully sentient, with every intent of infecting not just Earth, but every world touched by the Light. Your White Mask organization made off with both the ship I crashed in... and the samples, which are still contagious, for lack of a better word."

A sharp bang rang out, as Eliza slammed her hand down on her table, glaring harshly at Stella, "So, let me get this straight. You're some alien soldier, a super soldier by the sounds of it, from the future, and you've brought some apocalyptic demon virus from space that will wipe out humanity?"

"Oh, the Hive doesn't really do much to humanity after we give them the moon. It's the Fallen that really do the first strike... and the Vex and Taken who do the rest."

Eliza glared at Stella, slowly drawing her sidearm, and setting it on the table, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just put a bullet in your head, alien. If you're this grand soldier... where were you when the White Mask stole your ship?"

Stella tensed up, suddenly wishing she hadn't removed her helmet. She glanced around the room, searching carefully for anything that might be of use to her at the moment. Luckily, Jack, or Pulse, spoke up, "El... SHe couldn't do anything because she was saving us... Hell, I'm pretty sure she was dead for a moment there after she shoved me out of the way of a pair of 20mm cannons."

Eliza frowned, turning to her partner, "What do you mean, saving you?"

Gustave slowly moved in between Eliza and Stella, raising his hands placatingly, "He means exactly that. A little bit after she woke up from the crash, the White Mask attacked, and it was Stella who brought Caveira, Pulse, and Tachanka together to rescue me from a hostage situation. ANd then when they showed up with stealth helicopters to steal the ship, she pushed Pulse out of the line of fire, taking the hit for him. She's lucky to be alive... And we're lucky she was there to help us."

Ash wavered, looking warily at Stella, "Why would you save someone who was holding you prisoner?"

Stella sighed, shaking her head, "As a Guardian, it was my sworn duty, and sole purpose of existance to protect and save human life. As the Queen's Wrath, and a member of the House of Wolves, a certain sense of honor and reckless selflessness was pounded into my head. Actually, the recklessness was problably already there. Humans... you always have a tendency to trap or contain that which you don't understand. And that same trait is in your descendants, my race, the Awoken."

Ying shook her head, reaching over to the cart Zofia had been pushing and snagging a few french fries, munching on them with a pensive expression, "You know, you sound like you come from a specialized CTU. You said you come from this, 'House of Wolves.' What was your job?"

Stella frowned, glancing over at Ying gratefully, "I was part of a detatchment known as the Royal Guard. We were tasked with deterring assasination attempts for the most part, but every once in a while, we were sent out on... special missions. Infiltration, negotiations, and threat removal. I specialized in biohazards and bomb removal due to my ability of paracasual immortality... Not that I have that anymore. When I sacrificed myself to save your man, my Ghost used the last of his light to bring me back, effectively killing himself in the process. Now I'm stranded... I understand completely if you don't want me here, Ash. You and your team were here long before me, and I certainly shouldn't be here."

Ash frowned, scrutinizing Stella carefully. After a moment, she shook her head, "You're right. You shouldn't be here. But you are now, and there's nothing I can really do about it. You're here on Six's orders, so I can't turn you away. And... You also know the most about this Hive virus... parasite... thing. You are the best tool we have to fight it. How did you cure it beforehand?"

The blood drained from Stella's face as she thought about the question. She remained silent, unsure how she should explain this. A green haired woman recognized the look, her eyes widening in fear, "You didn't did you?"

Stella shook her head, "No... There has only been one instance of the Hive corruption being cured... and it was with a singular guardian. She's... strange now. It changed her on a fundamental level. She never went back into the field after that. As for the Hive itself, they stopped when we gave them the moon... until they got greedy. Now, we're barely holding them at an arms length while several other races try to destroy us. I wasn't kidding when I said humanity was facing extinction... Less than a million humans remain, huddled in the Last City. And around ten thousand Awoken live in a literal ship graveyard in deep space known as the Reef. We're making headway, yes... but it's slow. And the Hive... The only way to 'cure' them, so to speak, is to utterly destroy them. We have to find these samples and destroy them before the White Mask can release them onto the human race."

A stocky looking Russian whistled, shaking his head at the bleak assessment, "Well, if you ask me, we aren't supposed to be worrying about this... Of course, I know that we are now, but Six didn't think we were going to find out about it... unless she did?" He shrugged, tossing back his beer, before standing up. "I don't think we can sit on our asses though, so let's find our resident alien's spaceship."

Caveira scowled, crossing her arms in her little corner of the mess hall, "That will be easier said than done, Glaz. We don't have the intel for that job, and I doubt it's going to just be handed over to us."

Ash nodded in agreement, frowning, "Cav is right. We don't have what we need to do this mission. But we're a counter-terror unit with some of the highest security clearance in the world. We're also a team. Caviera, I want you and Capitão to check with your connections in BOPE, see if they've heard about any sort of movement. Lion and Finka, see if you can find any sort of large scale containment operations conducted by _any_ non-government entities. Get Smoke to help you. We're going to need to pool all of our resources. And above all… Don't let Six know about this."

Jack raised an eyebrow, "Wait, you want to keep this from Six? Why?"

"Plausible deniability." Ash frowned, thinking quickly. "While I'm sure she expected us to find out about… Lupa, I highly doubt she want's to be implicated in something like this. This way, we don't have to clear most of the red tape, and she isn't implicated in what could be an apocalyptic scandle."

Stella watched Ash carefully. Assuming that it was safe to move again, she put her helmet back on.

"I Don't think so, Lupa!" Zofia leveled an admonishing look at the armoured girl. "I want you out of that armour and into regular clothes. Talk to Ela, and see if she has anything for you to wear. We don't wear our operator gear to the dinner table, and neither will you."

Stella glanced at the green haired girl, who made a sound of annoyance at her name being called, "Zofia, Lupa is half a foot taller than _you._ There is literally nothing here that she can wear."

Zofia blinked owlishly, as if slowly realizing that she was no longer the tallest woman on the team. In fact, Lupa was taller than Sledge by an inch and a half, making her the tallest member period. Which also made it rather terrifying as to how silent she could be, "ER… Lupa, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly did you do for clothing in your time? Or is everyone as tall as you?"

Stella frowned, shaking her head, "Guardians were taller and more physically fit as by rule of thumb. We never really bought clothes or anything like that, simply because we pretty much lived in our armour. Guardians were never really off the battlefield for more than a few days at a time."

Ela winced, "Potępiać, it sounds like humans are still at war in the future, eh? Which one of you aliens fired the first shot?"

Stella went quiet, as did the other operators. Ela looked around in confusion, wondering what she did wrong. After a moment, Stella shook her head, and walked out of the mess hall. Alexi glared at Ela, surprising everyone in the room due to his usually cheerful nature, "Ela, you seriously weren't listening? The human race faces extinction in Lupa's time, and for once, they didn't cause it. Hell, I'm sure Lupa's race, which is directly descended from the Human race, faces discrimination, based on the fact that they simply aren't human."

Ela frowned, muttering in Polish, before speaking up, "For a girl two metres tall, you'd think she'd say something to defend herself."

Dokkaebi winced, rubbing her wrist, "Ela, she fires a weapon capable of breaking bones through the recoil alone. I think if she wanted to hurt you, she would simply have to flick you."

Ying sighed, shaking her head as she headed out to try and find Stella, "Zof, Monika, save some for Stella and I. I'm going to see if I can't find her and apologize for Ela."

Zofia shook her head, gesturing towards her green haired sister, "Take Ela with you, she can apologize herself."

"But, Zof, I didn't do a-"

"Anything wrong?" Alexi leaned forwards in his seat, leveling a piercing stare at the girl. "Ela, that Guardian has probably seen shit that would give any of us nightmares. Things much worse than the Chimera parasite, or the University Incident. I was with Six during her training, when we did her psych evals… I won't go into detail, but it's incredible that she wants anything to do with Rainbow, or humanity as a whole."

Ela blanched, her mouth opening and closing as she feebly attempted to defend herself. After a moment, she slumped, and followed Ying out of the mess hall.

* * *

Stella scowled as she paced her work area, wringing her hands out. Humans, always the same, no matter the era. Always pinning the blame on those who had nothing to do with the problem, even when they knew nothing about the situation. She could understand Eliza's suspisions and actions, and even sympathize with her. If this Chimera parasite was anything like the Hive, then the poor human was probably still having nightmares about that time. But Ela... Stella closed her eyes, breathing deeply to calm herself. There was another reason she had left the mess hall. She pulled out a black flip phone, unmarked, with only two buttons. She pressed the green call button, putting the device to her ear. There were several, long seconds of silence, before the other end picked up.

" _This is SIX Actual."_

"Six, this is Lupa. Rainbow has taken the job. They are unaware of your involvement for the most part, though they think you expected them to find out about me."

" _You know I did, Lupa. What action are they taking?"_

Stella glanced at the entrance to the locker rooms, listening carefully, "They've decided to pool any extra resources into finding my ship, and subsequently the Hive parasite."

" _Good. You have authorization to act within whatever means necessary to accomplish your task, Lupa. As a non-entity, you have certain restrictions lifted that the rest of the operators do not."_

"Roger, SIX Actual..."

" _Do not make me regret bringing you onto the team, alien. SIX Actual, out."_

Stella winced at Six's blunt tone right before the line clicked dead. She sighed, tucking the phone away in one of her many ammo pouches. She actually missed the Vangaurd now. Zavala and her may not have seen eye to eye, but they respected each other, and Ikora and Cayde... SHe would miss them the most, especially Cayde. The damned Exo may have annoyed the hell out of most people, including Stella, but he was also one of the few people who could make her laugh.

"I thought I'd find you here."

Stella nearly jumped out of her skin, her hand halfway to Queen before she realized that it was just Ying. She frowned slightly behind her helmet as she spotted the younger Bosak sister standing behind Ying, looking only a little guilty. She nodded curtly towards Ying, deciding to simply ignore Ela's presence, "Ying, I thought you would be with your team."

Ying shrugged, glancing back at Ela, "We were missing a member, so we decided to come and find her. Ela... We explained your situation to her."

Ela hesitantly entered Stella's living area, looking around in confusion, "Uh... You seriously live here? We need to get you an apartment or something, even if it's on the base. I can't imagine living like this."

Stella gave a short, harsh laugh, causing the green haired operator to jump, "Miss Bosak, I gaurantee you, this is no where near the worst place I've had to live in. In fact, this would rank up there in the top ten." Ying looked at Stella in confusion, prompting her to add on to her statement. "I lived on the battlefield, remember? I have legitmately passed out from exhaustion a few times, using the corpses of my enemies as a bed."

Ela winced again, looking guilty, "Right... about that. Lupa, I wanted to apologize for what I said. I have a bad habit of letting my mouth run when I should be thinking about what's going on..."

Stella glanced at Ying, who nodded encouragingly. The ex-guardian sighed, shaking her head, "It's fine, Miss Bosak..."

Ying grinned, "Alright! So now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about how we're going to get Stella some clothes!"

Ela grimaced, grabbing her stomach, "Can we get something to eat first? I'm starving!"

Stella rolled her eyes, but had to find herself agreeing with Ela. She gestured at the green haired woman, "I'm with her. I say we book it back before Rook eats everything."

Both operators paled slightly, before nodding. Ying grabbed both of their wrists, dragging them out of the weapon's locker. Stella could have easily put a stop to it, but... she didn't. She found the human's antics rather amusing.

* * *

 ****Amazon Rainforest: Unspecified Location****

"Where are we at with synthesizing the virus?"

In a hidden lab complex deep within the more unexplored regions of the Amazon, a singular scientist looked up at a large screen, shifting nervously. Every time he had to speak to the big boss, he could never make out their face... and their voice was always warped. It was just creepy. He cleared his throat, "I'm sorry, sir, but the alien virus continues to evade all attempts at synthesizing. However, it does appear to have the ability to replicate outside of a host body."

"Really? Very well then... prepare several quantities for an attack on Hereford Base."

The scientist froze, fear evident in his eyes, "Sir, that is ill advised. We don't have a cure prepared for this bio-weapon!"

"All the same. Prepare for an attack. Knowing SIX, there's probably a nuclear weapon hidden away somewhere on base. Team Rainbow will be wiped off the map, and all evidence of our involvement will be wiped clean."

The transmission was cut, leaving the scientist standing there with the sounds of the various test subjects, soon to be transmission sources, growling and shrieking in their contaiment cells.

* * *

 _ **And, voila! A new chapter, ready to go! Team Rainbow is now involved with the recovery of the Hive contaminant, and SIX is secretly pulling the strings! Unfortunately, it appears that the Hive weapon will be making an appearence sooner than Team Rainbow anticipated! What will happen next? Stay tuned to find out!**_


	6. New Recruits

"Oi, Lupa! Ash wants to know if you're down for a training session!"

Stella glanced up from her book at the sound of Sledge's voice, green eyes holding a soft, quizzical light. She carefully marked her spot, poking her head out of the weapons workshop that she still called home. Elizabeth, aka Ash, had refused to speak to her in the three weeks that had passed since she had been revealed as a time traveling alien from the distant future. Training exercises, meals, briefings… The supposed team leader of Rainbow was refusing to interact with the newest member of her team. The other members told her to be patient, that Ash just had to sort things out. Stella ignored them, and Eliza. She just saw a human who was reacting in fear to something they didn't know about, as usual. She grabbed the Queen of Spades, sliding it into the holster, before snagging her helmet on the way out of the workshop. She met the SAS operator, who was already suited up for a training mission. She took note of his somewhat troubled expression. The gruff man was usually serious, but she could tell that there was something wrong, "Alright… What happened this time?"

"New operators… I think she believes they can give you competition."

Stella raised an eyebrow. That sounded… interesting, "She really doesn't like me, does she?"

Sledge sighed, shaking his head, "I'm sorry, lass… Eliza has been through some serious stuff in the last few years. And with that alien parasite nearly killing her and her team, it's going to take a long time for her to trust you."

Stella sighed, nodding in agreement, "Yeah… I figured that. So, what's with these new operators, and why so soon?"

The burly man shrugged, his mustache trembling as he huffed in annoyance, "No clue, but Mira has been working with them for about three months now."

Mira, the R&D specialist for team Rainbow. She was the one who oversaw the implementation of new gadgets and devices in the team, both on and off the field. If Mira had put this much work into the new gadgets, then they must have been something special. She sighed, putting her helmet on. The suit automatically re-pressurized, hissing softly as the internal systems filled with air and came online. She watched as the HUD came to life, courtesy of Mira herself. Without her Ghost pulling the strings, the suit had to be completely reprogrammed. She had even begun work on trying to give her Ghost back some tactical capacity, though Stella had already said that it would be impossible without the Traveler's Light. Mira, however, was a different breed of engineer, it seemed, and she was determined to see a project through, no matter what.

The two operators walked into the newly remade Kanal training grounds, something that Thatcher openly frowned at, "It was perfectly good beforehand. Don't know why they had to go and change it like this."

Stella chuckled, clapping the man on the back, "Change is good, old man. Without it, you would get rusty, and then that Australian human would have to oil your joints."

Sledge glared at the taller operator, grumbling softly in Gaelic.

"Sledge, over here!"

Lupa and Sledge turned to see Ash with a group of operators in full kit. Stella immediately spotted the two new faces in the group, and took note of their rather… rugged appearance. Yes, the Australians were rather odd looking, but they also worked in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth, not to mention one of them was a mechanic, and the other was a dirt biker. These two seemed to have a more exotic feel about them. Stella judged them silently from behind the visor of her helmet, smirking slightly as they immediately noticed her. After all, it was kind of hard to miss her. She was the tallest operator so far, and decked from head to toe in body armour.

Ash frowned sourly as the two approached, glaring at Stella, "Sledge… Lupa. Meet our two newest operators, Goyo and Amaru. Defense and Attack respectively. We'll be running a hostage extraction on this time around, with Amaru taking point. Tachanka and myself will be monitoring the situation from the control room."

Ash immediately left the group, scowling as Stella seemed completely stalwart in the face of such intense dislike. Amaru looked up at Stella, grinning, "Well, you're a big one. I take it stealth isn't exactly your motif?"

Thermite snorted, trying not to laugh at Rook, who seemed mildly annoyed at the question. Lupa nodded, "I tend to take a more… shock and awe approach. Hit them fast, and don't leave anyone to ask questions. I double as a both a soft and hard breacher."

The woman raised an eyebrow, "Both? Interesting. And the armour?"

"Mostly bulletproof. You have to be extremely careful with shot placement if you want to take me down."

Goyo nodded, peering at the insignia emblazoned on her shoulder and chest, "What CTU were you part of?"

Lupa frowned, "That's… We can talk about that after the training exercise, trust me."

Amaru and Goyo seemed rather taken aback by the strange response, though they nodded reluctantly. Amaru shifted silently, adjusting the grip on her shotgun, "Alright then… Let's get set up."

Goyo grinned, giving his partner a thumbs up before heading inside with Rook, Ela, Kapkan, and Valkyrie. Amaru looked around at her team. Lupa, Sledge, Thermite, and Thatcher. She seemed both confident and nervous at the same time, "Alright… let's trade some intel. You tell me what they can do, and I'll tell you what Goyo does."

The team went through the introductions, giving Amaru a detailed description of the various operators' capabilities. She seemed rather intrigued by Kapkan's ability, though the reason became obvious once she told everyone what Goyo's tool could do. Everyone looked at Lupa, who had her arms crossed in annoyance, "Hey, I'm not Fuze."

Thermite cleared his throat, "Lupa, your weapon can punch holes in reinforced and concrete walls. A stray shot could hit one his shields and set it off, killing the hostage."

Lupa tensed up, a sudden urge to strangle Ash hitting her, "And with the exception of maybe Ela and Valkyrie, their team is comprised of anchoring defenders. Well played…"

Amaru looked at her in confusion, and Thatcher decided to supply some details, "Ash seems to hate Lupa, and probably set this situation up just to screw with her. She's not from a team that typically did hostage situations. It was more for biohazards and bombs, where it didn't matter who you shot."

Amaru blinked owlishly, "That… That sounds a bit childish on her part. What did you do?"

"I exist," Lupa responded coolly. She drew Queen, checking her ammo before pulling out a drone and tossing it out. The rest of the operators did the same, and a small horn sounded off, signaling the start of the exercise. They quickly spotted the hostage holed up in the basement of the Kanal, with Amaru grinning happily.

"We'll start from the top floor, and work our way down. Two of you move in from the sub and begin causing a nice distraction Thermite and Thatcher, that will be your job. Give them hell and then some."

The team quickly got to work, with Thermite and Thatcher rushing the rear entrance to basement and simply laying down fire into the area. To most, it would seem like random fire, but they were probing to see if anyone was through the nearest window."

 _Thermite and Thatcher, you've been spotted._

Thatcher frowned, looking around and spotting a Black Eye tossed up into the corner of their little area. The small sound of a piece of velcro being torn tipped him off that there was someone nearby with C4. Valkyrie. "THERMITE, GET DOWN!"

He quickly tossed out an EMP, throwing himself to the ground and tackling his ally. A heavy looking green brick sailed out of the shot open window, heading right for them. Before it could go off though, his EMP detonated, shorting it out. Ela immediately leapt out after it, leveling her shotgun at the nearest target and firing. Thermite yelled in pain as red paint splattered against his legs, before Thatcher rolled over and pumped a single shell into Ela's chest. The green haired Bosak went down hard, groaning in pain and weakly waving in surrender.

 _Thermite, you're out. Thatcher, you have an injure. Confirm the kill._

All three operators outside looked around incredulously, with Thatcher raising his voice, "Ash, have you gone mad!? Thermite was clipped in the legs! And Ela can barely move!"

 _Confirm the kill._

Thatcher grumbled in annoyance, pulling out his knife and walking up to Ela, only to duck and swear as a twelve gauge boomed from out the window, nearly taking his head off. He took cover as Valkyrie leapt out of the window, Rook providing covering fire behind her. She helped Ela to her feet, practically dragging her through the window before re-barricading it. Thatcher swore again, tempted to march up to the control room and give Ash a piece of his mind. Instead, he trudged over to Thermite, frowning, "You okay, brother?"

The Texan nodded, looking mildly infuriated, "Yeah. Sorry for Ash. I have no clue what the hell is going through her head."

Thatcher scowled, looking up at the sparking Black Eye, deactivated by his gadget, "I don't know… but I think Lupa might be in danger…"

Lupa looked up at the third floor window. Her suit could reach it, but she would definitely need it to be open so she could climb in. She nodded to Sledge and Amaru, the former throwing up his rappel rope and climbing up the wall as quietly as possible. Amaru placed herself under the opposite wall, pulling out her gadget and aiming it carefully. Sledge removed his trademark hammer, waiting for the signal. A loud bang went off as Amaru's gadget deployed, latching onto the window frame and dragging the woman through the air. Sledge slammed his hammer into the window, destroying the barricade with ease as Lupa leapt after the woman, the hissing of her suit masked by the sound of the Gara Hook. Amaru went in first, followed by Sledge, with Lupa bringing up the rear. As soon as she went in though, a deafening explosion blindsided her, and she was thrown clean off her feet. The other two operators spun around in confusion, noticing that she was covered in bright yellow paint. A used tripline trap hung from the window frame. They all looked at it in confusion, with Lupa wiping the paint from her visor.

"Ow."

Amaru hesitantly inspected the trap, "This is one of Kapkan's right? Why didn't it go off when Sledge and I went through?"

Sledge growled, glaring out the window in the general direction of the control room, "Ash… She is taking this too far. We need to grab the hostage, and get out of this deathtrap."

The two females nodded, drawing their weapons and preparing to move. A small sound nearby caused Stella to drop to her knee, firing at a wall and punching a hole clean through. A string of Russian curses followed, and Kapkan began dragging himself away, "Third floor! They came in on third floor! Lupa just hit me through the damned wall!"

Lupa narrowed her eyes, slowly holstering her weapon and stalking the downed man.

"Lupa… You know you can't interrogate him."

"Sledge, I'm currently covered in yellow paint because of a faulty trap laid by the very man who sits in front of us. I'm getting some answers."

Kapkan looked up at the trio, "Faulty trap? No, my traps are precise! And why are you covered in yellow? I use green paint!"

Lupa froze, her hands trembling, "SLedge… finish him. I might not be able to do it gently."

The Scotsman nodded, pulling out his hammer and tapping Kapkan with it. The Russian looked up at Sledge in confusion, obviously wondering what was happening. He frowned, "Ash is on the warpath, and her target is Lupa unfortunately."

Kapkan winced, shaking his head, "I feel sorry for you, comrade. Ash has a vicious streak a hundred kilometres wide."

 _Kapkan, you're dead. No talking unless you're on cams, relaying intel._

The Russian fell silent, prompting the trio of attackers to keep moving on. Amaru raised her wrist, "Thermite and Thatcher, what's your status?"

"Ash decided to have a shotgun to the legs off Thermite, and I'm still holed up by the rear entrance to the elevator. Valk, Rook, and Ela were holding the window, though I think Valk and Ela are heading your way. Rook and Goyo are holding the package for now."

Amaru frowned, shaking her head, "I thought this was supposed to be the most prestegious team of CTU operators in the world. Why is this going on?"

Lupa shook her head, "It involves who I am. Like I said, I'll tell you after this is done." She holstered her sidearm, actually drawing the M16 given to her by Rainbow. Sledge and Kapkan seemed especially surprised as she flicked the weapon to burst mode, extending the stock to prepare for a firefight. She turned to Amaru, nodding. "You're in charge here… What's our move?"

Amaru seemed mildly stunned that the towering woman was deferring to her. She cleared her throat, "We've been compromised. Move to the other side of the roof and begin working our way down through the hatches and stairs. Sledge, meet up with thatcher near the external stairs and begin working your way to the basement. Lupa, you're with me."

The trio nodded, rushing out the window. Valkyrie and Ela looked at each other, hiding on the stairs below them. Valk frowned, nodding to Ela, "Give me your radio. Mine was fried by Thatcher." Ela nodded, handing it over. "Valkyrie to Goyo, we're surrendering. Ash is taking this too far, and I think Lupa may have just snapped."

There was a loud squeal of feedback as the radio failed. Valk and Ela looked at the device in surprise and anger. "Crova… She shut off our comms! I'll make a run for the hostage and warn the new guy, try to stop Amaru and Lupa!"

The green haired woman took off at a dead sprint back to the objective, not caring how much sound she made. Valkyrie took a deep breath, approaching the now destroyed barricade to the rooftop. She pulled out her SPAS-12, along with her last Black Eye. She always kept one on her, just in case she needed to do some quick recon. She poked her head out, chucking the device as hard as she could at Lupa. She cursed as the camera actually hit her helmet, bouncing off and causing her to spray the area she was in. The SEAL dove back inside, barely avoiding getting taken out by the pissed off Ex-Guardian. She was suddenly aware of the fact that this had just turned into a real firefight. If Lupa decided to use her sidearm, she could do some serious damage to a person. "Lupa! Hold your fire! We're surrendering!"

She cursed as several holes opened up in the wall above her head. Time to move. She threw herself out of the side hall, staggering down the stairs as she made a hasty retreat. She was not looking to get into a hand to hand match with someone twice her size and with the strength to single hand fire a weapon capable of breaking bones through its recoil alone. "Ela, wait the hell up! She's after me!"

The Polish operator looked behind her, eyes wide as she pulled out a Grzmot and tossed it at the ceiling. She could see Valkyrie charging her, easily catching up and grabbing the smaller woman. She said nothing as Valk literally picked her up and fireman carried her back to the objective. Goyo and Rook nearly shot them as they rushed back into objective. Rook frowned at their red faces and panicked expressions, "Valkyrie, what is going on up there?"

"Ash pushed Lupa too far. I think she's about to come down here and wipe us out. Comms were cut by Ash, so we couldn't radio. Is Thatcher still out there?"

Goyo nodded, already disabling his shields and tossing the gas cans out of the way, before shooting Kapkan's traps, "Si, I heard him shuffling around, cursing up a storm. I don't think the attacking team is very happy overall."

Ela nodded, running over to the window and shouting through the Barricade, "Thatcher! We're surrendering! I'm opening the window! Quickly, before-"

The Polish operator got no further as a paint round slammed into the back of her head, causing her to yell out and hit the ground, clutching at the now wet spot. Thatcher and Sledge stood over her, having come down from the stairs behind her. Sledge looked mildly apologetic as she held out a hand to the woman, "Sorry bout that, just reacted. What are you screaming about? We already know that Ash is trying to rig the match."

Ela nodded, her eyes watering as she was helped up, "Yeah. We've decided to just cut our losses instead of getting obliterated by Lupa. I would rather she took her anger out on Ash than us."

Thatcher nodded, agreeing with her, "Comms are out, too. We've been trying to reach the others to let them know that we're ready."

Ela looked surprised, "She cut both teams' communications? How desperate is she for Lupa to fuck up?"

The trio headed to the Obj, where Rook was cutting the 'hostage' (just Mozzie dressed up as a civilian. He liked to be in the thick of things at all times) free. The Aussie rubbed his wrists, accepting Valkyrie's shotgun with a manic grin on his face.

"Oh, now _this_ is a shotgun. What's g-"

A deafening boom echoed through the room as a nearby hatch was blown open with a breach charge. The operators immediately leveled their weapons at the hole, only to be blinded as a pair of Grzmots went off. Mozzie and Ela weren't as badly affected, as the former was in a side room, with a little more cover, and Ela was used to stun grenades. The Bosak woman cursed as Amaru fell through the hatch, firing wildly on the way down. The other operators just dove out of the way, with Thatcher grabbed the weapon, forcing it down, "Amaru, cease fire! This has gone too far!"

Amaru let out a stream of curses, looking blearily up at Thatcher and Sledge, "Why didn't you say something over the radio? WOuld have come down the stairs..."

Sledge chuckled, helping the woman up with Thatcher, "Ash cut the line it seems. She really wants Lupa to go down this match."

Amaru frowned, shaking her head as she headed towards the stairs, "You people are crazy... Oi! Lupa! Show's over! The enemy team surrendered!"

There was a moment of silence, and then Stella dropped from the railing above the stairs, her weapon at the ready in case this was a trick, "If you surrendered, then why hasn't Ash called it?"

Thatcher frowned, looking over at Sledge, "Girl has a point, brother. They called the surrender over a minute and a half ago... And even Ash isn't going to ignore that."

A dull rumble shook the ground ever so slightly, but it was enough to set every operator on edge. Mozzie gripped the SPAS nervously, "Uh, mates, I don't think Ash was the one to cut the lines..."

The two senior SAS operators looked at each other, before barking out orders, "Get to the armoury, now!"

The teams immediately ran to their respective team members to relay the message. Lupa stuck with Sledge and Thatcher, pulling out a hefty looking drum cartridge for Queen and loading it. The rubber round cartridge hit the ground with a loud clatter. At their confused glances, she shrugged, "I always carry live ammo on me. Consider it a habit from living in a time where the entire star system is a battlefield."

Thatcher nodded in agreement as she loaded her rifle with live rounds, "Smart girl... You'll take point since you're ready for combat."

Stella charged her weapon, nodding as she moved out ahead of the SAS operators. The other operators caught up with them with matching expressions of aprehension and excitement. Hereford Base had never been directly attacked, so this was completely unlike anything they had experienced. Stella frowned, holding up her hand to bring them to a halt, "Goyo and Amaru... you were wondering about why Ash was acting in such a way to me?"

Goyo nodded, while Amaru just raised an eyebrow, "I think I'll hazard a guess here... Let's see... Anti-material handgun, advanced armour suit with what I'm guessing is a holographic HUD, flight systems, and potentially a closed system life support unit... I'd say time traveler, or alien. And we were both briefed on Operation: Chimera, which would explain her rather hostile nature."

Goyo nodded, a small grin on his face, "Amaru and I may or may not have been talking about you on private lines before comms were cut. It's alright, amiga. We understand your reasons for secrecy."

Stella was struck dumb for several long moments, before she just decided to roll with it, "I keep forgetting that this CTU is literally made of the best and brightest. I'd show you my face, but I don't think this is the best time. I'm taking point. Keep your heads down until we get to the armoury, and-"

Whatever Stella was about to say was interrupted as the entrance to the staging area was broken down, and a pale streak of decaying flesh burst through, tackling Stella. The ex-guardian went down with a grunt, wrestling against it. Snarling, shrieking, gnashing teeth filled her vision, trying to find purchase on her helmet to rip it off. SHe managed to grab it's head with one hand, holding it off while she sank two rounds into the thing's chest. the silence was deafening as she threw the creature off of her, only to feel her blood run cold. A thrall.

"Hio de puta... WHat the hell is that thing?"

Stella didn't even bother looking at Goyo, "That... is a Thrall. Sledge, Thatcher... For the forseeable future, I'm taking command of the team."

Thatcher nodded, giving a small salute, "What are your orders, ma'am?"

Lupa, Wrath of the Queen, and Captain of the Fallen House of Wolves, narrowed her eyes at the door, "Get to the armoury. And don't stop running until I say so. You are going to see things that will give you nightmares. Ignore them. You aren't sleeping yet. Now go!"

* * *

 _ **And so the war begins. The White Mask has dealt the first blow, and Team Rainbow is woefully unprepared. Ash is MIA, as are the rest of the operators at the moment. Stella has taken command for now, as she is the only one with experience in large scale battles and the Hive. Nothing much else to say here. Though I do have two bits of personal news. I am currently leaving the army (temporarily, of course), but it might make it difficult to write. And for the second part, my Pa tre on page (FF won't let me type the name out...) is still open. If you like what you see, consider donating to it to give a little support. Thanks!**_

 _ **Writing_Soldier**_


	7. ESCAPE!

Ash smirked smugly as the 'faulty' trap went off, covering Lupa in paint. She had no clue why SIX had instated her into the team without consulting her first. She was the de facto leader of the field operations team, and the one who headed the incursion into the quarantine zone during Operation Chimera. She had the most experience with alien lifeforms, and could only see them as parasitic creatures wanting to take everything and destroy anything that wasn't obtainable. And SIX had the audacity to shove one of those creatures into her team without consulting her first? From what Alex had told her, he was the one who sat in on her psyche evaluation and training!

To make matters worse, with the rare exception of a hostage situation, this alien was _perfect!_ She hadn't been touched once, her memory of buildings and standard architecture was flawless, and on more than one occasion, she had taken on entire enemy teams without pause. It was infuriating for the seasoned veteran of dozens of CTU operations to see a new blood act like that. And then there was the fact that she rarely interacted with the rest of the team. She wasn't someone who belonged in her squad, and she was going to make sure she knew that this match. She checked the other traps, making sure they were secure. Kapkan had no idea that she had switched out the traps he normally used for remotely detonated bombs. And then she had chosen Mozzie specifically because she knew the Aussie wouldn't be able to sit still in a firefight. Lupa had a tendency to shoot anything that moved if it wasn't friendly, which was the reason she had failed several times during her hostage training. She scowled as she watched the alien interrogating Kapkan. She was certain that Lupa had been barred from doing that. And what's worse, she could see Kapkan complying. She growled, speaking over the intercom, "Kapkan, you're dead. No talking unless you're on cams, relaying intel."

She leaned back, smirking as the trio of attackers backed down. They had no idea that Valkyrie and Ela were sneaking up on them from below. Wait… what were they doing? She saw them pull out their radios, speaking into it. However, there was nothing coming through on her end. What was that about? A malfunction? She fiddled with the receiver, trying to regain signal so she could hear them. Nothing. That was strange. She considered what the problem was for a bit, jumping slightly when her spare radio suddenly lit up with chatter and what sounded suspiciously like gunfire. She grabbed the radio, barking into it, "Report, what's going on out there?"

There was a brief moment of silence, and then the panicked voice of one of the standard soldiers broke through, "The bloody base is under attack! Some sort of creature, never seen anything like it! They just keep coming! And there's a bunch of wankers in fucking masks- Shit! They just broke through the main gate! Get back you god damned freaks!"

Ash dropped the radio as snarling and screeching broke in, her hands shaking. It sounded like a Chimera infection all over again. But that had been eradicated! Which meant one thing… Lupa. She snarled, going for the door and trying to leave the observation booth. Locked. Of course it was. When the base underwent lockdown, most areas were sealed. She wasn't an idiot though, and kept her gadget on her whenever training came up, even if she was just an observer. She grabbed the explosives launcher, loading a breach round into it. She always kept one on her at the base, just in case. She got to the far corner of the room, before firing on the door. A smirk reached her face when the round detonated, blowing the door apart and hopefully letting the operators in the training area know that something was up. Then she ran to the nearest emergency intercom, triggering the raid siren to let the whole base know that they were under attack.

* * *

A loud boom rang out as Lupa downed yet another thrall, before she holstered the weapon and drew her rifle, flicking the selector to semi-auto and downing another one, "Move it! I don't have that much ammo!"

The other operators were doing their best to help the ex-Guardian, using pipes and a two-by-four in Mozzie's case to beat back some of the lucky thralls. The nightmarish creatures were everywhere! Screeching and trying their best to sink needle-like teeth into the still living operators. Ela screamed as one of them latched onto her arm, trying to drag her off. Valkyrie used her shotgun to bat it away, dragging the green haired girl with her. Even the seasoned SEAL seemed terrified by the creatures, some of them dripping blood from what she assumed were unlucky souls. She had absolutely no idea that Lupa fought _this_ on a daily basis. A deafening boom that didn't belong to an M16 rang out, dragging her attention to the open armoury door. Thermite and Gridlock were guarding the entrance, the former using his shotgun while the later was using her M249 to rain down lead upon the vile creatures. The heavyset woman shoved her weapon into Thermite's hands while she grabbed her sawed off and began rushing to Lupa's side, "Lupa, where the hell is Ash!?"

"No fucking clue! Comms were cut at some point, and we haven't heard a peep from her since. The only reason we knew that the base was under attack was because something outside of the damned training area-"

"Lupa, you bitch!"

The guardian turned to receive a heavy blow to the helmet, courtesy of Ash using her grenade launcher like a baseball bat. Kapkan grabbed the woman, dragging her inside the armoury behind the rest of the group while Thermite sealed the door shut, muffling the snarling and screeching outside. Lupa turned to see all fifty operators huddled inside the armoury, staring at the enraged Eliza struggling in Kapkan's grasp, "Let me go, Maxim! She just brought a new fucking Chimera to our home! I'm going to-"

Surprisingly, it was Ying who stepped in, slapping the woman across the face and cursing her in Chinese, "Would you shut up for a minute and think, Ash? We knew this was coming! The White Mask has always been planning for a direct attack on our base of operations ever since we took them down in Bolivia! Our intelligence told us that much. And Stella had nothing to do with it. In fact, she saved our best operators despite being their prisoner and only knowing them for a few hours at best!"

The other operators stared at the smaller Chinese woman in surprise, a few looking towards Lupa in confusion. Yes, they had heard rumors of the new Operator being from another planet, but as very few of them had actually been here, and were simply here because of a recall put out by SIX herself, they were meeting her for the first time. Lupa sighed, nodding towards Thermite to keep an eye on the door, "All of you, start arming yourselves. Carry as much ammo and munitions as you can, because I doubt we'll be able to restock for a while. I'll… I'll try to explain what I can."

She hesitantly removed her helmet, the surface barely even scratched by Ash's weapon, "My name is Stella… I am a soldier from the future from my own sort of CTU. The creatures outside are known as Thrall, and are born of an alien race known as the Hive. Those are just… cannon fodder. Footsoldiers used to completely overrun a place before the more powerful Hive infections are brought in."

One of the operators, a Spaniard with a steely look and cradling a Vector Kriss frowned, "It's like the old Chimera Parasite. How the hell did they get a hold of that?"

"Because Lupa gave it to them!"

Ash screamed the answer out, glaring at Stella. Jack shook his head, sighing and retelling the tale of Stella's capture and subsequent hostage situation. By the end of it, half of the operators were looking at the alien in stunned silence, and the others with grudging respect. Ash was calming down a bit, glaring at Lupa still. She jerked away from Kapkan, "I don't care if you pulled Jack's ass out of the fire. You're still the reason those creatures outside are here, and now we have to fix your mess. Has anyone gotten a hold of SIX?"

Stella frowned, going over to her area and pulling out a black phone. She pressed the call function and waited. Nothing. Not even a ring. Her blood ran cold, and she glanced over at Tachanka, "Alex… this is a direct line to SIX. What are the chances of her not answering?"

"Slim to none… Do you think something happened to her?"

She nodded, "Possibly. Who takes charge if SIX goes down?"

Ash looked as if she were about to step in and claim command, but was stopped as the Sledge and Thatcher stepped up, the younger one looking to Thatcher. The old soldier growled out, "I'd say that I'm in charge, but I think this just went beyond a CTU. Lupa, you're on. How the hell do we get out of here?"

Ash looked at the SAS operator incredulously, "Are you seriously handing leadership over to the alien who brought this shit upon us?"

Thatcher nodded, "Aye, and I don't want to hear any bellyaching about it. She's the one who got us out of the training area and to this armoury, and she has the most experience with not just these creatures, but large scale operations. So, yes. I'm putting her in charge. Anyone else disagree with me here?"

The armoury was silent. The Spaniard with the Kriss nodded, "Alright then. What's the plan, Lupa. How do we show these capullos the fucking door?"

Stella opened her mouth to respond, only to be stopped by her phone buzzing. She grabbed it, seeing a single message.

 _I have been compromised. Nuke set to detonate. 20 minutes. SIX out._

Stella's eyes went wide, "We're not showing them anything. We have to get the hell out of here. SIX had a nuclear device stored here it seems… We have fifteen minutes until the base is vaporized."

That seemed to spark a bit of action in the operators, who quickly grabbed their equipment. Mira stepped up to Stella, handing her a small pouch with a sad smile, "He'll live again, Stel… Trust me."

Stella nodded her head in thanks, placing the pouch in one of her numerous ammo pouches and shouldering her rifle, "Sledge, Valkyrie, Glaz, and Tachanka, you'll be carrying the extra equipment. Let's move people!"

The armoury was quickly stripped of essentials, which went into several large duffle bags. Personal items were left behind, as for the most part they could be replaced. She waited until everyone was ready less than a minute later, before nodding to Fuze, "Blast the other side of the door. That way it'll be clear before we go."

While the Russian operator set up one of his signature charges, Sledge shouldered his bags and stood next to Stella, "What's our objective?"

"The airfield… We commandeer a Chinook and get the hell out of here. Listen… These creatures. They're nothing like what you experience with the Chimera outbreak. Yes, they're similar as an infectious disease, but other than that… Look, if I tell you to run, you need to do that. Don't come back. Just get on a chopper and get the hell out of here. There are some things you don't need to see."

Sledge shook his head, "I don't think so, Stella. I understand that you were some sort of lone war dog in your time, but now you have a team, and you aren't immortal."

Stella just stared at the human, before shaking her head and putting her helmet back on. She nodded to Fuze, who triggered his charge. He waited for the explosions to stop, before flinging the door open and darting out, followed closely by Lupa with the Queen, Maverick, and Jackal. The dust was still settling, but there wasn't a single enemy in sight. They could hear muffled shrieks and screams in the distance, but the area itself seemed rather quiet. The various operators nervously fanned out, looking for any sign of enemy forces. Stella frowned, looking around with her hand on Queen, "Clear. Keep moving towards the airfield. Fifteen minutes. Don't bunch up. Keep some distance between each other so that you have clear lines of fire. Equipment, stay in the middle for protection. Keep your sidearm out if you can. Shields, surround them. Move."

The company of operators moved as quickly as they could, though it was a bit stiff as they were not used to moving in such a large number. Breaching and clearing was more their style. The sound of gunshots nearby brought them all on high alert as a skinny man came sprinting around the corner, firing a handgun wildly behind him. He spotted the group of operators and slid to a halt in surprise.

"Don't just fucking stand there, get over here!" Lupa waved with her free arm, easily visible despite her dark coloured armour. The man yelped, nearly tripping over himself as he continued his desperate run. A trio of thralls came screaming around the corner, scrambling on the concrete floor as they tried to catch their prey. The froze as soon as they caught sight of Stella. Simultaneous screams of pure rage and hatred tore from their emaciated throats as they rushed the woman, completely ignoring their previous prey. The man hit the deck as Finka and Fuze stepped forwards with their LMG's opening fire on the monstrosities. Stella stepped forwards, grabbing the man and picking him up with ease. He was a skinny looking man of Middle Eastern descent. There was a briefcase in his left hand, and a handgun in his right, though the latter was empty, "O-Oh, you must be Lupa! I'm Harry. SIX was the one who sent me your psyche eval."

Stella nodded, the movement stifled by her helmet, "We're heading for the airfield now. SIX activated a nuclear contingency, which will detonate in about fifteen minutes."

Harry's eyes widened, and he nervously adjusted his glasses, "Oh… shit. Then that means…"

Stella nodded, gesturing for Harry to get behind her as the group continued moving, "Harry, when did the attack start?"

Harry accepted a clip from Glaz, loading it into his weapon, "Well, from what I can tell, they hit the main gate and the east gate at the same time, just a hoard of them from everywhere… Oh god, Herefordshire-"

"Is probably dead, converted into a Hive nest in parts. The Hive works quickly."

Harry just nodded, looking grim, "The White Mask will pay."

Thankfully, the airfield was located right next to the training facility. Several Thralls were milling about, though they were quickly dispatched thanks to Dokkaebi and Ash. Jager quickly boarded the nearest Chinook, while Blitz and Bandit got to work prepping the aircraft to fly. Jager called out from the cockpit, "When I start this thing up, it's going to make a lot of noise! I'm betting my next paycheck that those things are going to be coming after us!"

Stella nodded in agreement, gesturing for the others to start loading up, "Capitao, I need to use your 249 for this. The M16 is good for accuracy, but not for numbers. The Italian man nodded, tossing the weapon over to her before hopping on. Dokkaebi and Glaz were set up on the rear ramp with Ying, while Zofia and Finka were manning the machine gun turrets on the sides. Blitz rushed onto the chinook, followed closely by Bandit. Tachanka set up his turret next to Stella, who frowned, but nodded her thanks as he took up his natural position behind the bulletproof glass. Pulse was right besides him, racking a shell in his shotgun. Stella wanted to tell them to get onto the aircraft… but she knew that she wasn't a Guardian anymore. She needed a team, "JAGER, START THE DAMNED THING!"

The aircraft whined as the blades began spinning to life. It was soft at first, but quickly grew louder as they picked up speed, gaining the additional thumping noise accompanied by all of its kind. Stella gripped the M249, preparing for a small army to attack. And they came. It was only a few at first, just ten or twelve at at time. Easy pickings for the trio. Then came the hoard. They were spilling out the windows, the alleys, buildings. Well over half a thousand of them. Thermite was the first to retreat, his shotgun and handgun quickly running out of ammo. Stella had to order Tachanka back when the chinook began lifting off, leaving her the only one on the ground. She continued firing, even when the aircraft was taking off. Ying yelled something unintelligible at her, and she glanced up to see the aircraft hovering a few dozen feet overhead. She cursed, leaping up as hard as she could. Her initial jump would have saved her, had the Chinook not been rising up at the same time. Fear, raw and fresh, flooded her body as she began slowing down on her ascent, reaching for the still lowered ramp. Her fingers just missed it, and she began sinking back down to the ground.

She looked down in horror as the Thralls began converging on what would be her landing spot, only to yelp as someone grabbed her wrist, halting her descent. She looked up to see Ying, the smallest operator on the team, struggling to hold up the combined weight of Stella, her armour, and weapons. Finka, Mozzie, and Sledge were right with her in an instant, dragging Stella onto the Chinook, while Mute slammed the button to close it. The four operators groaned on the floor, struggling to catch their breath.

"Stella… ya seriously need to lose some weight."

"Shut the fuck up, Mozzie."

* * *

 _ **Well, there you have it. Hereford has been destroyed, and the team is all together. Yes… all of them. And I found a way to make Harry the new SIX. I might be rushing this particular story due to obligations with my own book and "The Force of Change", so I'm sorry in advance. In other news, I am starting to try and push my Patron page. I can't really link it here due to the site's restrictions on links, but if you google 'Writing_Soldier patron,' it will be the first link there. I offer several rewards that will only really come into effect when I have enough members/patrons, including cameos in my stories, the ability to present challenges, and previews of my personal works/book that I am writing. See you next time, and don't forget to review!**_


	8. Ch 8: A New Home

_**Well... I think I'm back. It's been a while, and I've been in and out of several funks, but I'm still here. I'm still chugging along. Sort of. I'm not really going to get into any sort of details as to what happened, or anything like that. I'm just going to pick up where I left off. I'll start working on the closing chapter for "The Force of Change" here in a bit, and I'll probably rename it so I can continue in a series. In other news, I've been thinking about doing a League of Legends and Harry Potter crossover. I already know four of the characters I'm going to be using, which are the KDA girls, but I need a character to ship with Harry. I'll have a poll set up for that later on, though I'm thinking either Sona or Jinx. Also, I may or may not make the "Guardian of Magic" into a three way crossover of Harry Potter, Destiny, and Touhou. If anyone has inputs on that, it will be greatly appreciated. On to the story. It's more or less an info-dump, but there's some story in it as well. Have fun!**_

_****_

**Ch. A New Home**

There are many thoughts one can have when watching their home vanish in a blaze of nuclear hellfire, ranging from shock and terror, to rage and hatred towards whoever had caused it. These were the feelings going through the Rainbow international CTU as they stared at the growing mushroom cloud hovering over what was once Herefordshire. Most of the operators simply clustered together with their respective nations, staring at the sight while muttering amongst themselves. However, there was one lone figure, dressed in black body armour and a featureless helmet and slit visor. SHe didn't say a word, and simply stood there, keeping a silent vigil. After several minutes, she turned around, "Alright, list-"

Lupa's head jerked back as a 45 ACP round slammed into the helmet, sending her reeling. THe round pinged off the black metal, taking the paint of to reveal the original blue underneath. Everyone turned to see Eliza aiming her sidearm at the staggering ex-Guardian, sending several more rounds into her chestplate and helmet until the weapon clicked empty. She began reaching for her G36C, only to be tackled to the ground by a burly NAVY SEAL and held down with the help of Gridlock, "Ash, what the hell do you think you're doing!?"

Several operators, including Doc and Lion, rushed to help Lupa, who was more disoriented than anything. SHe looked up to see the two GIGN operators actually working together for once and frowned behind her helmet, shaking her head groggily, "Okay, I think I got hit in the head a few too many times... Aren't you two supposed to hate each other?"

Doc glanced up at Lion, a somewhat sour look in his eyes, "We... have our disagreements."

The CBRN Frenchman nodded, sighing, "Oui, but at the end of day, we are brothers in arms."

Stella groaned as they helped her to her feet, flicking a few rounds off her chestplate, "Right, that's why I've watched Mira and Blitz pulling you off each other's throats every other week?"

Doc just shrugged, smirking slightly, "We have a lot of disagreements, madame."

The armoured girl just rolled her eyes, stomping over to the restrained Ash and squatting down next to her, "Listen closely, human... and listen well. I know you don't want me here. I don't want to be here either. On that, we can agree on. However, there is probably another thing we both hate. _Traitors._ "

Ash was staring murderously at Stella, restrained by Blackbeard and Pulse. The two American operators were glancing nervously at Stella, and Thermite actually had to place a hand on Stella's shoulder, just in case, "Stella, I get it. None of us are happy about this situation. So, how about we calm down before one of us gets killed?"

The ex-Guardian scowled, clenching her fists as she slowly nodded and turned away. A soft cough tore their attention away from the scene as Harry cleared his throat. The thin man stood on the ramp of the landed chinook aircraft. He waved everyone down, waiting for them to gather together before starting, "Alright, so uh... I have good news and bad news. The good news is, everyone on the Rainbow special field unit made it out of Hereford Base. And well... That's all there is for the good news."

Kaid winced, shaking his head and spitting on the ground as he muttered something in Darji. He continued in English, "Well, what is the bad news then? Barring the small nuclear device detonating?"

Harry sighed, looking around him at the dozens of operators, "Rainbow... has officially been disbanded. We are being blamed for the nuclear attack. All international CTU operations have been ordered to cease by the UN and NATO, and all Operators have been recalled to their respective countries. It is unknown whether you will face trial for war crimes..."

"But we didn't do anything!"Grace cried out in outrage, her ever present glasses missing from her face as she pushed her way to the front. "Hereford was hit with a bioattack that couldn't be contained, and SIX did what she was ordered to do, right?"

Chul reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, opening his mouth as if to admonish the younger operator.

"Oh, put a can in it, Vigil! Life isn't always about rules and regulations! We were just attacked at our home! We have to-"

"Do something? I agree." Chul's eyes were dark as he watched Grace's expression go from outraged to shocked as the normally rule abiding Korean continued. "I for one, think that the people who have ordered us home are fools if they believe we will let this go unanswered. They killed our leader, and destroyed our home and our fellow soldiers. We need a plan to strike back, before they can do any more damage."

Harry nodded, "I agree, Vigil. That is why I am taking over as Provisional Director until further notice. Rainbow will not be disbanded. However, we need a place to regroup. Any ideas?"

Zofia was the first to respond, stepping forwards, "My old family grounds should house us just fine. Might be a bit dusty, but there's plenty of space to set up shop."

Mira nodded, grinning from ear to ear, "I have a few contacts up in Poland as well, so I should be able to get our R&D program running at a decent pace as well."

"Good... that just leaves the problem of getting there. This chinook doesn't have the fuel for a trip that long, and I doubt we can get fuel from any airbases."

Ela frowned, glaring at Zofia as she stepped forwards, "We can probably pay for that as well. I just hope we can find a flight that lets us fly together."

Grace grinned impishly, causing her fellow SMB operator to roll his eyes and mutter her operator name, "You can leave that to me. Anyone got a laptop?"

 **Eight Hours Later**

Stella was jerked awake as their Red Eye flight to Warsaw was hit with mild turbulance. Her eyes shot open as flashes of green light and explosions echoed in her mind, and she gripped her seat's armrest tight enough to make the leather gloves she was wearing squeak from the stress. She did not like airliners... at all. Ying stirred next to her, glancing over at the tense Guardian, "Hey, you good?"

The girl nodded, sighing, "Yeah. THanks again for the disguise. I still can't believe that Grace managed to clear the entire first class section. The pilots looked so confused."

Ying nodded in agreement, smirking, "Well, there's a reason we call her Dokkaebi. It means Goblin in Korean, a trickster of sorts."

"Hpmh... She and Cayde would get along famously."

Ying raised an eyebrow, shifting in her seat to get comfortable, "You never really talk much about your past. I mean, I get that it's hard to realize that you're probably not going to get back home, but still... It sounds fascinating."

"Hey, are you Sheila's going on about Stella's CTU? Hey, everybody, Lupa's about to spill the beans on the Vanguard and-URK!"

Stella had to hold back a laugh as Gridlock suddenly grabbed her much smaller partner by the scruff of his neck, lifting him off his feet and glaring at him, "Tha's enough out of you. Go back to your seat."

Tori dropped the man, nodding toward's Stella before heading back to her seat with Max. The resident alien sighed, shaking her head, "I guess you're right. However, I think I should wait until we're away from public ears."

Ying nodded, frowning slightly, "Good point... Then in that case, I suggest you get some sleep, because the others won't stop asking questions at least until the next day."

Stella shuddered, realizing that the first few days at Zofia's family home were likely going to be torture for her. With some reluctance, she settled back down into her seat, closing her eyes and letting sleep take her once more.

 **Six Hours Later**

Zofia hadn't been exaggerating when she claimed to have room for the entire CTU. Her family home was a large mansion, with dozens of various guest rooms and storage areas. Stella glanced over at Ela, who was looking at the house darkly. She raised an eyebrow, speaking softly, "It's big... Must have been lonely."

Ela nodded, gesturing to Zofia, who was giving Harry the tour of the place, "Yeah. When your father doesn't give you the time of day, and your sister is always doing her own thing, you tend to get left behind."

Stella nodded, looking at the elder sister pensively. She rarely spent much time amongst humans in her own time. In fact, these last weeks had been particularlly enlightening for her. She just wished Lux had been here to see it, "Well… I suppose it could have been worse. Just think, you could have had a brother instead."

Ela paled, thinking how horrible her father would have been if Zofia had turned out to be a boy instead of a girl. She shuddered, nodding in agreement, "Ja, I guess you're right."

Stella's lips quirked in a small smirk as she moved ahead, nodding to Zofia and Harry, "Still as dusty as you remember, Zofia?"

The Polish woman nodded, chuckling softly, "Definitely. Harry, this is Lupa, one of our newest operators, as you well know."

Harry looked up at the towering suit of armour, grinning, "Oh, I know her all right. Do you know how hard it is to do a psyche eval with only a few interviews and mock mission transcripts? I think Nokk was easier, and there was next to no information on her."

Stella shrugged helplessly, "I'm sorry, SIX. However, your predecessor wanted a certain amount of discretion concerning my involvement with Team Rainbow."

"Yes, I noticed. I still don't even know what you look like, seeing as Ying dragged you off to put on a rather copious amount of makeup." The acting director laughed, shaking his head. "I haven't seen paranoia like that since the CIA was involved with Rainbow."

The ex-Guardian sighed, thinking carefully. She glanced over at Zoifa, "Hey, do you think you can get everyone together in some main area. I think it's time I told them a bit about myself. It might help them understand what exactly attacked Herefordshire."

Zofia nodded, gesturing for Kaid and Thatcher to rally on her. Harry frowned up at the disguised woman, a pensive light in his eyes, "You said that you had encountered those... creatures before. Do you know how to beat them?"

Stella sighed, gesturing for Harry to follow her as Zofia began gathering everyone inside a rather large dining room, "Yes, and no... If we have enough bullets, we can beat them. But as far as I know, there isn't a cure. There has only been one reported case of the Hive corruption being purged, and the poor woman was never the same afterwards. She was... changed, on a mental and physical level. Never really went into the field afterwards, and most everyone in the Vanguard avoided her."

Harry winced, not particularly liking the picture Stella was painting, "I... suppose we can discuss this in length at a later time."

Stella nodded, making sure everyone was in place, before gesturing to Mira and Ying to follow her. Mira stood guard on the other side of the entrance while Ying began gently cleaning the makeup off the alien's face. She looked up at the woman in concern, "Are you sure about this, _Jiānhùrén?"_

Stella had to refrain from nodding as she responded softly, "There isn't much of an option here. They already know I'm not human, or at least suspect it in some capacity, even if they don't believe what I said at the base."

Mira nodded in agreement, moving in to check Lupa's face for any extra makeup, "Si, she's right. It's either this, or listen to Ash spout some sort of humanist propoganda. She was like this after Chimera, and a germaphobe to boot. You did nothing wrong, Stella. Now come on, let's go make everyone's universe a whole lot bigger."

Stella nodded gratefully towards the two women, tucking her helmet under her arm and calmly stepping back inside the dining room. Immediately, whispers and gasps broke out. Stella's skin crawled as all eyes went to her. She was an oddity, a freak even, in their eyes. She knew that... it was always th-

The anti-social alien's thoughts were interrupted as Mozzie suddenly whistled and let out a cat-call, grinning broadly, "Well, would yah look at tha'? It seems we had an exotic little sheila hiding amongst us! Hey, Nokk! Hows about you take off the net so we can get a look at-ACK!"

Several nervous chuckles went around the room as Tori suddenly grabbed Mozzie in a tight headlock with an apologetic look at both Nokk and Lupa. Both women nodded their thanks, though it was hard to gauge Nokk's reaction as she indeed had her standard uniform on, complete with cam-netted helmet and bacalava. Stella sighed, shaking her head, "Alright... where to begin?"

One of the German operators, Jager, shrugged, "Well, I always find that it's easier to start at... you know... the beginning?"

Stella was both amused and shocked at how well it seemed the fifty odd humans were taking this entire situation. It was a testament to their training and collective experiences, she supposed. However, she had to agree with the German, "Yes, I guess you're right. The first thing you should know about the time that I come from, is that humanity is nearing extinction. At the last count, there were only half a million humans living in the Last City, and about ten thousand of my own kind living in the Kuiper Belt. The world has already come to an end, and we're just trying to find a place within the ashes." Stella hesitated, thinking about how to approach this next topic.

"Our enemy... is not one enemy. However, at the same time, it is. We call it 'The Darkness.' Imagine something so evil, so twisted and dark, that it hates other evil, and exists only to destroy all life, and consume the light of the universe. When it arrived in the Sol System, we tried to fight it. We threw everything at it... Nuclear weapons, FTL impactors, even _antimatter_ did nothing to it. Our great Warmind, Rasputin, shut itself down as a final defense, leaving Earth and her colonies defenseless. ANd thus, the Vex awoke. The Vex are machines, operating on some sort of Quantum programing and weilding technology that allows them to travel through time. They had outposts on Venus and Mercury, though they had lain dormant until the arrival of the Darkness. With the collapse of Humanity, they reactivated themselves. Mercury was teraformed and turned into a planet sized machine in a matter of days.

"Next, the Cabal arrived. Incredible warlords in their own right, and literally bred for battle, they had a tendency to obliterate entire star systems that refused to submit to them. However, in their attempt to take Mars, they encountered the Vex, who immediately engaged them in a quiet war in order to defend one of their ancient complexes on the red planet. Or at least the main entrance to it. I happen to be on relatively good terms with several high ranking ones in my time, and we openly trade. However, the majority are bloodthirsty warmongerers who seek only to conquer the star system.

"The Fallen, or Eliksni in their tongue, are a race of aliens who lost their planet to the Darkness. Much like Humans, they too were visited by the Traveler. However, the Traveler decided to run away when the Darkness arrived, instead of fighting alongside them like the humans. A group of them is tenuously allied with the Awoken, and I am the leader of one of their platoons, for lack of a better term. Nothing much to say about them. Nice people, once you get to know them. A bit... tribal."

Stella sighed, pursing her lips as she stared sightlessly at the far wall, "And finally... in terms of actual races... THere's the Hive. An ancient, undead race that seeks to corrupt and destroy all life in the universe. I have fought all manner of aliens in my time as a Guardian and a Wolf, but those... things. They scare me. Unlike other races, who have normal means of reproducing, or who have to manufacture or call upon reinforcements through time like the Vex, the Hive infect and spread like a disease. They consume everything in thier path, and move on when it's all gone. When a hint of thier corruption is found, we do not try to cure it, we do not try to reason with it... We burn it. Destroy every last mote of dust that could possibly be used to infect something else. They were given the moon in the early days of the Dark Ages, but when I… left, they were getting greedy. They want to spread, and have heavy footholds on Earth and Titan."

Mute raised a hand, shock and confusion on his face, "Wait, Titan? As in cold, frigid, methan based Titan?"

Stella just looked at Mute, slowly nodding before continuing on with her tale, "Now… Thus far, you have only encountered what are known as Thralls. They are born of the corrupt will of the Hive, creatures twisted and shattered into what you saw a Herefordshire. Those are the _weakest_ of the Hive. The can grow, evolve in a way. Armour, ranged weapons… literal magic. Or some form of tech that not even we know about. Either way, nothing to be trifled with."

Doc, who had been listening intently up until this point, realized that there was something missing, and cleared his throat, "Excusez-moi, dear, but there's something I'm not quite understanding. You say that these creatures corrupt anyone they come into contact with… how and why did you have a sample of their biomass on your vessel?"

Stella nodded, sighing slightly, "Knew I had forgotten something. Actually, I was about to explain why they were here now. The mission I was sent on by my queen, was to assist a member of the Guardian Vanguard, Eris Morn, in carrying out a research project to fight the Hive. The only problem was that she needed a… sample of the Hive. And not just any sample. She needed the Larvae of a Hive Worm God."

Lera frowned, the connotations of what Stella had revealed coming as quite a shock, "Er… Hold on. The existance of alien gods aside, you're telling me that you kidnapped the child of one of said gods?"

Stella sighed, nodding, "In a nutshell? Yes. Though, it's a little more complicated than that. A Worm God is constantly producing larvae, and each larvae is placed inside of a soldier, essentially binding it to the will of the Worm. Thus, there are millions, if not _billions_ of these things. Thralls are normally produced by Hive Wizards, and fed the larvae, I have absolutely no idea how the White Mask have managed to produce these thralls."

Lera had a pensive look on her face, her fingers flexing unconcsiouly, "How long does it take for one of these 'Worm Gods' to mature?"

Stella shrugged, "I have absolutely no idea. Oryx- er… The Hive have God-Kings as well, and Oryx, and his sisters, each have immature Worms that they have been feeding apparently for billions of years, and they still haven't matured."

Jack cleared his throat, making a small gesture, "It could potentially be an adaptation. A sort of growth spurt to ensure survival. There are several species of creature on Earth who have similar adaptations, though not nearly as rapid as this."

Stella shook her head, "No, that wouldn't work. Hive Worms grow through something called Tithes, which are essentially the lifeforces of the enemy offered as sustenance. These are given to the worms through the units that they infect."

"What if someone in the White Mask was directly infected by the worm?"

Stella paused, looking over at Lera. She opened her mouth to reject the idea, but paused. What if that's what happened? Slowly, she took a mental step back, her Warlock mind going into overdrive. Not much was known on how the Worms really infected the host. They knew that Wizards basically force fed the worm to the Thralls, but…, "Maybe… but that would mean something so much more terrifying. It would mean that our mission is no longer to secure the worm and retake my ship… We have to deal with an infestation."


End file.
